Love Me Dead
by AllHailAugustus
Summary: What if Bill had drained Sookie in that car trunk in Jackson?
1. A Glass Can Only Spill

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Love Me Dead_

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**Warning: **This is a 'what if' story that goes off the idea of what might have happened if Bill had drained Sookie in Jackson during _Club Dead_. If the infamous trunk scene was too much for you in the book, you might want to skip Bill's middle section in this chapter.

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_Chapter One: A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains _

Bill POV

Hunger.

At our core that's what vampires are.

We're shells needing to be filled. Corpses animated by magic and borrowed life.

Our cold touches and pointed smiles give us the flair of the exotic, a hint of danger, but we still look so much like you, so human, that it is hard to imagine we could harbor a nature so different and contrary. We wear the vestiges of our former selves like a sheepskin, dead men playing at being alive.

We make it easy to forget that we are all starving monsters and those who keep our company long enough end up like us:

Dead and hungry.

***

In that car trunk in Jackson, there was no thinking, no conscious decision on my part, only the smell of prey. It permeated the entire space, that warm fragrance pressing down like a blanket. It called to me before my body could move, before my fingers could start twitching.

I could feel the heat radiating off of the form next to me, hear the thrumming promise of fresh sustenance pounding in my ears. As soon as the sun loosened its hold, I latched on to it.

My fangs tore through giving flesh and hot liquid filled my mouth. In that moment, there was only the blood and the hunger. My jaw gnawed at the wound for more, my arms gripped the vessel and each heartbeat pushed a wave of pleasure into my body.

But blood isn't the only hunger and a second appetite stirred lower in me. My hands ripped off the fabric in my way and I buried myself in the heat. At first I pumped along with the pounding pulse but it began to slow and our rhythms diverged. By the time I reached my release, I was having to suck hard to draw out the blood, but the urgency had lessened and my frenzied gulps had become languid swallows. The damage to my body had healed. I was drinking for the taste, for the feel of it in my mouth now that the driving need was gone.

That's when I returned to myself, like a light bulb switching on. The scent—her scent—surrounded me. It is a smell that I will remember until my final death and for a brief second, I was relieved because I was with her.

I stopped my sucking, my fangs still sunk in her, my lips pressed to her neck. She wasn't moving. She wasn't moving at all. I let go and pulled away.

"Sookie," I said, shaking her. "Sookie!"

Her limp body flopped in my arms, her head lolled. I listened to her lungs, barely a whisper in the air, while her heartbeat sounded like the shuffling of feet in a distant room. I could still taste her sweet tang on my tongue, between my teeth, coating my mouth. I had taken too much.

She was dying. I killed her.

Her spark was hovering on the edge and I could not let it go. Not now. Not like this. She could hate me. She would hate me, but not more than I would myself. All that mattered was that she would still walk this earth. I could exist with that.

I bit my wrist and brought it to her lips.

***

Eric POV

With the quantity of my blood that Sookie had taken the night before, it was not hard to track her to the Were's parking garage. As soon as I woke at Eddington's, I checked my connection with Sookie and was put at ease by the fact that she was alive and not in the mansion. Could it be that my little bullet sucker had pulled her plan off? I smiled to myself. She was always so surprising.

I flew towards her through the winter night skies, wind whipping my hair, a smirk on my face upon imagining all the things I would do with Sookie once she was free of Compton. The small taste of her from last night was not nearly enough. I remembered the feel of Sookie hot and tight around my fingers, her warm panting breaths against my lips, the gentle exploration of her hands moving over my skin as her body arched toward mine. There was no holding back now. I would have all of her soon. Very soon.

A growing uneasiness pulled me from my revelry. Even though I was approaching Sookie's location, the hum of her in my mind was dimming and by the time I spotted the white Lincoln, it was almost entirely gone. Something was wrong. I ripped the trunk open.

Bill looked up at me, his face rosy, his bleeding wrist poised above her mouth. In that brief moment there was silence. Complete silence. My eyes widened and my nostrils flared from the scents of sex and her blood.

"Sookie," I breathed.

Her name had barely passed my lips before I snatched Compton from the trunk and smashed his head against the garage floor.

***

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**A/N:** So did Eric get there in time? Do people want Option Eric or Option Bill? On a separate point, both the story and chapter titles are songs (as I imagine all the chapter titles will be). My recommended playlist for the chapter. Love Me Dead is by Ludo and A Glass Can Only Spill What It Contains is MewithoutYou. If anyone has other song suggestions for chapters I'd love to hear them. I'd love to hear anything you have to tell me, honestly. This is my first serialized narrative, so let me know how I'm doing.

~AHA


	2. Drain the Blood

**A/N: **I just wanted to thank everyone for the alerts, favorites, and wonderful reviews. And to think, I wondered if anyone would be interested in a story like this.

**Disclamer: Charlaine Harris owns the Southern Vampire Mysteries and I don't. Sadness.**

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_Chapter 2 Drain the Blood_

Eric POV

I had Sookie cradled on my lap in the back of the Lincoln, giving her my blood before Bill's even started to ooze onto the concrete. My reactions were so immediate, so instinctual that I was almost startled to find her cheek rested against my shoulder. Sookie's pale face was a stark contrast to the dusky olive of my suit as I held my open wrist to her mouth. A tightness rose in my chest to see her so still and bloodless. She had always been so alive and vital, a tiny sun that pulled me in, that seeing her like this reminded me of how close she came to being finally dead. I clutched her closer and massaged her throat to help the blood go down.

I had been patient while she was alive, enjoying my pursuit of the little human I had grown so fond of. There were few who could surprise and delight me as she could and from the way we kissed, I more than looked forward to fucking her. Both these qualities made her worth protecting, but my level of attachment was still puzzling. Around Sookie Stackhouse, I found myself doing impulsive things that were not always in my best interests, things that marked her as more than an asset.

I staked Longshadow to keep her safe and took a bullet in Dallas while shielding her body with my own. I escorted her to that pathetic excuse for an orgy. I gave her my blood. Twice. And would have again because it bound her closer to me. I offered to heal the marks the Were brute, Jerry Falcon, left on her shoulder though it could have attracted questions from unwanted quarters. It was an uncharacteristic error in judgment, but seeing her injured disturbed me almost as much as seeing her cry.

Given time, she would have come to me and she would have come willingly. But when I opened that trunk and saw Compton hovering over her, when I saw what he was about to do, there was no choice left for me or for her. The idea that Sookie would be his or anyone else's for the rest of eternity was unacceptable. She was mine and she would be mine.

It was a relief to now feel my blood taking root inside her, branching out through her limbs with the last stirrings of her heart. The weight of her presence settled in my mind with the promise of a new child and an unbreakable connection. She would wake and be with me. Nuzzling my cheek against her hair, I savored the last vestiges of her warmth and the last time she would smell of sunshine. I wanted Sookie's scent all over me as a final farewell to her human form.

When Sookie was finally gone, I drew my wrist away and closed the wound. Her lips were stained with my blood and some had dribbled down from the corners of her mouth. It looked so dark against her skin, so vampiric. I cleaned her chin with one long lick and glided my tongue over her lips before kissing them. It was doubtful that I would get the chance again anytime soon.

This was not a step Sookie was prepared to take and if there was anything I had learned about that stubborn woman in particular was that she hated to abide by decisions made for her. She would chafe at having to obey me, being tied to me before she had yielded.

Ever since I asked her if she wanted me to turn that fangbanger at Farrell's party in Dallas, I knew becoming a vampire was not something Sookie would want for its own sake. The look of horror on her face was so different from the vermin at Fangtasia, who become giddy just hearing the word turn. Sookie actually loved being human.

Like I ever would have actually taken that filth as my child. But if Sookie had agreed, I might have actually done it. The effect she had on me was unsettling.

The slam of distant car door brought me back to the present situation. Even though it had only taken a few minutes to complete the process, an open parking garage really wasn't the ideal place for a turning.

Retrieving the yellow blanket from the trunk I wrapped Sookie in it and settled her in the back seat before dumping Compton back in the trunk. I had to chug the two bottles of True Blood I had left for Bill. I gave her more of my blood than I really had to give, but I wanted her to have the fullest advantage of my ancient blood. That's one reason vampires like to drain the future child themselves, so they have plenty of blood to give back. Not to mention it strengthens the bond between maker and child. And it's delicious.

A growl escapes my throat at the thought that Compton took that right from me. Just thinking of how unpleasant he made the experience for her, that the last memories of her life would be so tainted with hurt, made me want to tear his head from his body. She would be impossible to manage now.

However, I would restrain myself, at least until Compton gave his special project to the Queen. After all, that was the reason why we came to Mississippi, why I had to ask Sookie to put herself at risk. I tossed the empty blood bottles on top of Bill and slammed the trunk so hard the rear of the car bounced off the ground.

***

By the time I stopped for gas, I had already called Pam to start making arrangements for Sookie. I tried to keep it all business, but Pam wouldn't let it go.

"You turned the telepath? Already?"

I scowled at the empty road in front of me. I wanted to go faster but the Lincoln did not have the pick up my Corvette did. It felt like the car was barely moving forward. "There wasn't much choice, Pamela."

"She won't be happy about this."

"It's what she is now. She will have to accept it."

"Sookie won't like that either." Pam paused and I could feel her debating on the wisdom of continuing her thought. "There are some that take the other way."

I clinched the steering wheel and could hear it groan under my grip. No child of mine would meet the sun. "I am her maker. I will make it clear to her that that is not an option."

Pam knew better than to snort from the warning in my tone. I only hoped that I could back my words. Sookie had proved remarkably resourceful in the past and she was brave and stubborn enough to do it.

"Besides, she is a survivor like me. She will adapt."

"Of course, Master."

"Just have the room ready," I ordered and hung up.

Parked in front of a pump at the gas station, my eyes flicked to the review mirror to check on my unmoving blanket-covered lump in the back seat. It had become a habit over the course of the drive and even as I exited the vehicle and filled the tank, I kept watch through the car windows. I needed to get her vulnerable form home. To my den. Safe.

A tapping noise came from the trunk of the Lincoln as I passed by after paying the pimpled-faced clerk for the gas. Bill could easily rend the metal and free himself. The tapping was more asking my permission to be let out as a good underling should, especially since I put him there.

I considered for a moment before opening the trunk and Compton unfolded himself from the small space in a flutter of paper and white powder. As much as he deserved to be left in there, I had instructions for him. The remaining hour of driving to Bon Temps would provide ample opportunity so that I would not have to delay at his decrepit hovel. The turning was an important time between a maker and new child and the less I had to spend on Compton, the sooner I could see to her.

I started the vehicle and he slid into the passenger seat before turning to look back at Sookie. He pulled the blanket down and I watched the cool mask of his face as his nostrils flared, taking in the scent of my blood inside of her.

"She staked Lorena, you know," he said, his eyes still fixed on his dead former lover.

"Sookie?" I could not contain the smile that crept across my face. Killing a vampire as old as Lorena was not an easy task, for Sookie to have accomplished it as a human was quite remarkable. "Sookie killed Lorena," I repeated, relishing the statement. I wish I could have seen it.

Compton pulled his gaze away from her and settled in his seat facing forward. "It was a fair kill."

I had no doubt. She might be gentle and kind as a matter of course, but when threatened she showed nothing but steel and fire. Sookie was a fearless warrior at heart. She would make a magnificent vampire.

I pushed images of a vampire Sookie fighting in leather and high heels, drenched with blood, from my mind. I had business that needed to be dealt with. "You handled this situation poorly, Compton, and put me in a very awkward position," I said casually, but there was no mistaking the menace in my words.

The younger vampire kept his eyes on the road ahead, the headlights of passing cars drifting over his profile. As an asset of the Queen he had some measure of protection and as his sheriff, it had been my duty to retrieve and preserve him. However, he still lived in my area. I could make his life very uncomfortable and my wrath was not something to be taken lightly.

"So what was so important that you would risk everything?"

I watched as Compton opened his mouth and hesitated under my scrutiny.

"A database. It catalogs all of us I have encountered on my travels and those others know of, including histories, makers, aliases, talents, pictures. It is quite extensive. I would say it covers more than 80% of vampires in North America and many outside." Compton paused, choosing his words carefully before continuing. "The Queen considers it a worthwhile project and thinks it has the potential to be a great earner for the kingdom."

I would never understand why Sookie had tethered herself to such a fool. Vampires are notoriously jealous of our secrets. It would be easy to see that there would be many violently opposed to such a project and would think little of disposing of its creator. Though, the Queen was right that such a tool certainly could be an extremely lucrative enterprise and it would undoubtedly draw the envy of other kings and queens.

With such dangers, why did Compton take so few precautions with security? More perplexing was why the Queen would let Compton dwell alone in Bon Temps when she could keep him and his project under her guard in New Orleans. That care and knowledge of this secret had been left to a human (for I had no doubt that Sookie did know about it) was extremely poor judgment and I had never known Sophie-Anne to be so careless with something she believed could benefit her.

No, there was something I was missing. This issue would require more investigation.

"She's going to hate you for turning her."

I checked Sookie in the rear-view mirror at Compton's words. She looked beautiful, even in such a dishevel state, her golden hair a shining halo in the moonlight. "Not as much as she will hate you for betraying her. For killing her."

He flinched.

"I was badly injured. We don't all have the control that comes with your age."

I snorted. "There was no one I would have wanted to stop for at your age, Bill. Besides, I have a feeling that Sookie would be more willing to forgive you for your nature than for your choice to return to that she-devil." After a moment of contemplation, I nodded. "She will forgive me in time. I do not think she will be able to sustain her anger for as long as she has before her now."

"I suppose I can only hope for the same."

Compton stayed silent for the rest of the drive. I left him in Bon Temps with instructions to settle things with Russell. I had no desire to retrieve him from Mississippi a second time.

***

Pam's pearly Lexus was in the drive when I arrived at my home outside of Shreveport and a small wave of irritation swept through me. This was not how I imagined Sookie's first visit to my home. I wanted her to be conscious and us to be alone. The thought caused me to pause after I lifted her out of the vehicle.

When had I decided that I wanted Sookie at my home where only my child had ever been allowed to enter? I looked down at Sookie's face and studied the pout of her lips, the fan of her eyelashes against her cheeks as if they could give me an answer.

I shook my head. It no longer mattered. She was my child and I would keep her with me at this house for as long as she would stay.

Pam was waiting for us in the den when I carried Sookie into the house.

I stopped in the open foyer. "I do not believe I required your presence, Pamela."

Pam rose from the sofa and approached, examining Sookie cradled in my arms.

"Forgive me, Master. I wanted to see the telepath one last time while she was human," Pam said quickly taking in Sookie's mussed hair, the dried blood at her throat where Compton's savage bite had healed, and the stained and borrowed blanket and clothing. "What happened?"

"Compton accidentally drained her. I turned her."

Pam's eyes snapped up to meet mine. "Bill didn't want her? She yielded to you?"

"She would have eventually."

Pam studied my face. While taking another vampire's human was a breach of protocol, it was ultimately more bad manners than a punishable offense. However, interfering with another vampire's turning was much more serious since there was clearly an intention to add the human to our numbers. It could deprive the sire of a cultivated asset and possibly damage the newborn. As much as possible, we tried to avoid creating vampires like Bubba.

Looking back down at Sookie, Pam smirked. "She always was such trouble." The edges of her lips turned up in a smile and Pam scrapped some of the dried blood from Sookie's neck before tasting it. Her fangs ran out in appreciation.

"It is too bad we never got a quality sample. Such blood is wasted on Bill."

I nodded my head in agreement. It was a shame that her human life was wasted on Compton, but her undead life would be mine and appreciated to the fullest.

"You are dismissed, Pamela."

As soon as I heard the door close behind Pam, I flashed down to my safe room. Finally alone and undisturbed with my new child, I placed Sookie on the bed and went to start the bath. While the tub filled with water, I began to slowly strip her of her soiled clothing. Lifting her a bit, Bernard's powder blue track jacket and pants came off, my fingers trailing along behind over the silk of Sookie's skin. She must have shaved recently and though she will probably be glad not to spend the rest of eternity with "hairy legs", I would not have been upset to feel those downy hairs.

With the clothes gone, Sookie was left in the beige lace bra and small pair of light blue panties, which I supposed must have come from Bernard too. I moved my hand back to unclasp the bra and could not but help wish that she was awake to enjoy the process with me. I wanted to see the desire in her eyes the first time I laid her bare before me and for her to see the admiration in mine the first time I took her in. After pulling the fabric away and tossing it aside, I stood back to look at my Sookie.

She really did have the most exquisite pair of breast I have ever seen.

I stepped back to her and traced the swell of those graceful hills, thumbs circling the delicate pink aureoles. Placing a small kiss on both pert nipples, I let my hands drift down her curves to remove her underwear. My fingers brushed through the soft curls between her legs before drawing away. I shed my own clothes and scooped Sookie up, carrying her to the bathroom.

With her settled in front of me in the tub, I began to wash her. I took great pleasure in bathing Sookie, though it was hard to imagine an activity involving me touching a naked Sookie that would not be pleasurable in some aspect. The droplets of water rolled down her skin and my hands slowly roved over every inch of her body. The reek of Compton was gone and only the scent of the soap, Sookie's own delicious fragrance, and the smell of my blood within her remained. From now on she would carry that slight undertone that marked her as mine.

I opened the drain and toweled us both off before returning Sookie to my bed. I could not bring myself to re-dress her quite yet, even though I knew I would have to before she woke to keep her from getting unnecessarily upset. She would come to me soon enough. I slid in bed behind Sookie and tucked her small form into mine. Right now, I wanted it to be just us. Nothing but us.

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**A/N:** Drain the Blood is by The Rural Alberta Advantage. I plan to update this story at least every Friday. I wish it could be more, but what can I say? I'm a slow writer and real life is a bitch.

Next on: Sookie rises! How do you think she'll take it? ~AHA


	3. Howl

**Disclamer: ** Southern Vampire Mysteries is owned by Charlaine Harris.

_Chapter 3: Howl_

Sookie POV

I think I knew something was different even as I was dragging myself out of that deep well of unconsciousness. Waking up in my newly vamped body was like coming home to find everything in my house rearranged. The shell of the building—the outside, the walls and major structures—was still the same but the extra bedroom was now an office, the kitchen had switched from electric to gas, and the furniture had gone from traditional and maple to modern and walnut. I still had all my fingers and toes but there was no escaping that something within me had changed. I could certainly try though.

I shifted and fabric moved around me like liquid. Silk. I was surrounded by silk and it felt like every thread was caressing my skin. There was a scent on it and all around me that was warm and musky and familiar, but so much clearer and more complex than I remembered. Eric. The depth added to his smell was like hearing new notes in my favorite song. I opened my eyes, and he was staring down at me with that intense sapphire gaze, his face set in its inscrutable mask.

There was another smell in the room and my body tensed in response, snapping taut like a wire pulled tight. I kicked the blankets away from me and tried to scrambled across the bed towards it.

He snatched me up and pressed my back to his chest, his arms banded around me. Unbelievable! I hissed and thrashed against him, clawing at his thighs. Didn't he understand? Didn't he understand how badly I needed it?

"Shhh, Sookie," he whispered, rubbing soothing circles on my stomach. I struggled to get myself under control but my restless movements didn't stop entirely. My whole body was throbbing. I was so hungry it was painful. I squirmed and whimpered.

Eric chuckled and the rumble of it vibrated through me. "So impatient, little one." He kissed the side of my neck and reached back with one arm to a bedside table. Sitting up straight again, he held a glass of red liquid in front of me and the metallic tang filled my nose.

It was blood.

And I was desperate for it.

I thought my heart would stop in that second, but of course, it didn't. My heart wasn't beating, and my lungs weren't expanding with air. Nothing in me was moving. My life had gone silent and all that remained was that awful hunger, the dreadful longing for blood.

No.

I jerked and twisted, but his arm constricted around me. "Be still and drink," he commanded, and I could feel the force of it pushing at the shield around my mind.

"No!" I yelled, shoving the pressure away from me, keeping it back.

Eric's hold on me tightened even more and I cried out in pain. It felt like he was going to snap me in half. "Stop this! You have to drink."

The glass came toward my lips, and I clenched my jaw, turning my head away. The smell was overwhelming, and I could tell I wouldn't be able to hold out much longer. At that moment more than anything, I wanted to be in my bed at home, waking up to find out this was just a bad dream.

I felt an energy surge inside me and buzzing through my limbs, building until I thought I couldn't hold it in anymore. And with a pop, everything went black.

***

I groaned as I returned to awareness. Every inch of me was sore and tingly. If I had to guess, I would have said that someone had stuffed me in an industrial dryer and sent me through for a couple of loads. Complete with internal static cling.

My eyes opened to the comfort of my own cream and yellow bedroom, which was a relief, even if a grimace was crossing my face. I was just so hungry—hungrier than I had ever been before. My bones ached with it. Perhaps this was what had prompted that crazy dream. My body was trying to get me up to feed it.

I rolled over the side of the bed and gingerly put my feet on the floor. As soon as I was standing, a swell of power rolled across my mind, ringing and resounding inside it. Eric. He was calling me to him. My head had already turned in his direction and I was staring at my Gran's floral wallpaper as if I could see Eric through it. I could feel the connection between us tugging me to him like a line reeling in a fish. Even worse, my body was acting like it wanted to go, shuffling toward the door without my permission.

What the heck was this? The last thing I needed right now was Eric. I grabbed hold of my wardrobe to make sure I didn't go anywhere and forced the feeling back. While I was able to block out the urgency and command it carried, I couldn't get rid of it entirely. The call was still there, compartmentalized at the back of my mind, chiming away, but the level of it had dropped from air raid siren to clock ticking on the other side of the room.

Like I didn't have enough to deal with. I could barely think with the shape I was in. A haze of hunger had settled around my brain and I needed to eat before I started chewing my own arm off. After that I'd deal with everything else.

When I lumbered into the kitchen, I immediately picked up on the all the food scents. I could recognize the Raisin Bran in the cabinet and the ghost of fried chicken, but something about the way they smelled was…off. They registered more as a dish sponge or lawn mulch than food. Inedible. I opened the refrigerator and a cloud of odors came wafting to my nose, a cacophony of ingredients. But again, it was more like a science experiment than a meal.

Now that I was actually looking at a plate of hamburgers, dishes of potatoes and green beans, I figured I'd be drooling, but I didn't even want to touch the stuff.

What was wrong with me? With how hungry I was, I should be diving in head first.

Searching the leftovers, I pulled out a cold pasta salad and pulled back the saran wrap. It was all things I should like—cheddar, ham, noodles, ranch sauce—but I couldn't even bring myself to taste. It was about as appetizing as a toilet brush.

I growled in frustration, dumping the bowl back in the fridge. If I couldn't eat this, what the hell was I supposed to eat?

The sound of a truck pulling onto the rutted driveway made its way to my ears and I froze. Sending my mind out, I recognized the pattern of my brother's thoughts.

…_car still hasn't moved, house is dark…check inside…call the sheriff in the morning…_

Digging under the surface thoughts, I could tell that I had been gone almost a week. Sam had told Jason that I was out of town on a trip, but when I didn't come back like expected and Sam started to look worried, Jason knew something was wrong. For the past two days, he had been dropping into my house to see if I had returned and decided that if I was still missing at the end of the week, he'd call the authorities.

Jason may mooch my groceries and never help me clean the gutters, but he always made it a priority to protect me.

He parked his truck by my car around back and walked across the gravel toward the house. His heart was drumming out its steady rhythm, getting louder as he approached. It was the only thing I could hear. That noise was my whole world and it sounded like an invitation.

There was a sharp prick on my lip and a hand absently came up to touch long, pointed canines. Fangs.

Jesus Christ, Shepherd of Judah, I was a vampire.

The backdoor opened, and Jason stood at the threshold.

"Jason, stop right were you are." I said before he could get a word out. I was still in front of the open refrigerator, holding onto it so tightly I could feel the metal giving under my fingers. My head was bowed and my eyes were fixed on the floor, tracing the diamond pattern of the worn linoleum. I knew I couldn't look at him.

For once in his life, he did what I asked.

"Jason Aaron Stackhouse, this is not a joke. Do you understand me?" I tried to keep my voice composed and even, but there was still a quaver from the strain. "Slowly and calmly get back in your truck and drive away. You need to get away from me. Right. Now."

He didn't move. I could smell his fear now, the slight perspiration and the hint of adrenaline in his veins.

"Sookie, what's—"

"JUST DO IT!" I screamed at him.

And that's when it happened. Instead of walking away, Jason stepped towards me. It was too much. I lunged at my brother.

***

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I am a terrible person for stopping there, I admit. But people love cliffhangers right? What's going to happen? Sorry for the short chapter. I'm pretty sure the next one will be longer if that's any consolation. The chapter title is _Howl_ by Florence and the Machine, a suggestion made by SnowxCruellyxHeartbroken. Or I suppose you could listen to the Ginsberg poem. Either way.

Am I still doing okay? Let me know!

~AHA


	4. Lost in Time

**Disclamer:** Charlaine Harris owns these characters and SVM.

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_Chapter 4: Lost in Time_

I had lunged at my brother—fangs extended, hands curled to claws—ready to drain him dry, when a hand grabbed me mid-air and slammed me down on the kitchen table.

I was kept pinned on my back while I hissed and scratched and Jason was yelling in the background before he quickly went quiet. An upturned bottle was thrust at my mouth and the liquid ran down the sides of my face until I got a swallow of it. Nothing had ever tasted so good. My hands clamped around the bottle and I greedily gulped it down. When it was gone, another took its place.

With each bottle I could feel me coming back to myself. I looked up into Eric's face as I suckled like a baby. He was holding me down by the throat even after I had stopped struggling and there were bloody scores on his arms from where my nails had cut him. It reminded me of Junior Flannery, who worked Animal Control around Bon Temps and came into Merlotte's from time to time. His arms always looked like that, but with smaller marks.

After my fifth True Blood, Eric scooped me up and took me back to my bedroom. He left me on the bed, gave me another blood, and went back to the kitchen.

I turned the glass bottle around in my fingers, looking at the thick red liquid. I was a vampire. Now that my head was clearer, the signs were starting to sink in. I had never turned on a light but could see as if it was midday. Better even. Everything had more details, sharper edges, deeper colors. I could feel the dust in the air moving over my skin and hear the whirr of the heater, the critters moving in the woods outside, Jason breathing in the kitchen. I could still smell where Eric had touched me.

The volume had been turned up on all my senses. I had thought it would be overwhelming to be a vampire—to have to take in so much, to process all those tiny pieces of data—but this felt natural, like an expansion of what was already there. It was like a kid with poor eyesight not realizing the world was fuzzy until someone gave him a pair of glasses.

I had attacked my brother.

Tears burned at my eyelids and I was glad to let them well over. Crying felt like me, like something human Sookie would have done in this situation. The familiarity of the act comforted me. I was still here. It was still me. I might not be able to hyperventilate or blush or sneeze in my new form, but at least I could bawl like a baby whenever I felt the need. And no more of those red-faced, snotty, racking sobs. I could cry silent, beautiful tears.

I looked up at Eric standing in the bedroom doorway, scrutinizing me with his lips pressed to a thin line, arms crossed. Unhappy, frustrated. He walked past me into the bathroom and came back with a washcloth.

He held my chin and began scrubbing my face. The warm roughness felt good moving in small circles over my skin. For his mood, he was being surprisingly gentle.

"What did you do with my brother?" I asked keeping my eyes on my hands as he continued his ministrations.

"The man in the kitchen? I glamored him. He won't remember anything."

Good. As much as I hated the idea of my brother with vampire induced holes in his head, I didn't want him to see me like that. I didn't want anyone to see me like that. "Thank you," I said, lifting my gaze to meet Eric's.

His eyes locked onto mine. He stopped his cleaning but held onto my face, making sure I couldn't turn away.

"Sookie, do you know how you came to be at your house?"

"What do you mean? I just woke up here."

Eric shook his head. "You rose in my home and became agitated when offered blood. You disappeared while I was holding you."

"That wasn't a dream?" My eyes widened. Silly Sookie. My vampire nightmare wasn't so far-fetched now that I knew I was one. I didn't have the slightest idea about the scenery change though. "How did you know I was here?"

"I had to track you from Shreveport." His eyes narrowed at me. "You did not answer my call."

I didn't have to guess what Eric was talking about, and it certainly wasn't a telephone call. The body-snatching urge to go to him that rang through me earlier couldn't have any other name.

His cold blue stare was digging into me. "When I call you, you must come immediately. When I command you, you must do as I say. Do you understand?"

I could feel his will rising within me and pressing at my shields again. I brushed it away. Now that I was strong and fed, it took considerably less effort. I didn't understand exactly what he was doing or how he was doing it, but the fact that he was trying to influence me made me burn.

"Don't you dare try to order me around, Eric Northman! It didn't work when I was human and it certainly isn't working now." I jerked back, pushing at his chest, but his grip on my jaw kept me from going anywhere. "And no, I don't understand! I don't understand any of this."

I couldn't seem to remember what had happened to me. There was a chasm in my memories, a divide between waking up at Eric's and my life in Bon Temps. Everything that approached that gap was foggy and fragmented. The answer was there, I just had to figure out how to get to it. I needed to know. My hands curled into Eric's shirt and all the anger seeped out of me as suddenly as it came. "What happened, Eric? Why am I a vampire?"

He finally let his hand drop from my face as a frown settled on his. "Do you remember what happen after you retrieved Bill?"

I tried to think back. "I had to stop and ask for directions after I left Russell's. I didn't really know where I was." That's right, the helpful woman at the gas station. Just the two of us smiling in the sun.

That drive was my last day on earth. I'd never see the sunlight again.

I closed my eyes and drug myself away from that thought. That was for later. I needed answers now. "I parked in Alcide's parking garage and checked on Bill…"

Oh, God. The trunk.

I remembered waiting in that cold, dark space for hours, like a goat tethered in a lion's cage, waiting for the attack I knew was coming as soon as the sun set. I remembered the icy chill that crept up my spine when he started to move and shift, the horrific pain as teeth tore into my neck. I remembered begging him to stop.

I drew in a long, unnecessary breath and let it out in a shudder of air. "I didn't…I didn't even try to fight him at first. I didn't want to encourage him, but after that…" After that, when I knew he wasn't stopping, I fought like a wildcat, struggling and clawing against the iron bands of his arms. He forced himself into me and I couldn't even slow him down. He just kept sucking away as I got weaker and weaker.

And I just wanted him to stop. To stop and realize that it was me.

More tears rolled down my cheeks and I swallowed. "Bill killed me."

I looked up at Eric and after a moment, he nodded.

I was numb. It was like a vacuum opened inside me that left no room for anything else, refusing the pain I knew was waiting on the edge of my consciousness. How do you deal with the knowledge that someone you loved had literally sucked the life out of you? I didn't know. I didn't have the first clue.

The scrub of the washcloth against my face again brought me out of my stupor.

"And he turned me?" My voice sounded alien, mechanical.

"No," Eric replied firmly. "I am your maker."

"Maker?"

"The one that turned you."

"Bill didn't…?" What was I asking here? Did Bill not turn me because he respected my wishes? Because he knew I didn't want to be a vampire? Or was it because he didn't want the girl who he had cheated on, the girl who he had raped and drained?

"He was going to turn you but I stopped him."

So Bill was going to keep me around regardless of what I wanted. Fantastic. "And you turned me instead?"

"Yes."

I cocked my head to the side. Eric was taking a lot of care to spell this out. I had touched on something important here, but I wasn't exactly sure of the implications. Vamps were big on possessiveness and once they laid claim to something, it was off limits to everyone else. The few times Bill had mentioned making new vampires (and, let's face it, Bill rarely discussed vamp business with me), the two-step process of draining the potential newborn then giving them blood always sounded like it would be done by a single vampire. This tag-team approach sounded odd. I figured I'd test my theory.

"So, Bill draining me and you turning me was unusual?"

Eric lifted both eyebrows. "Highly."

I waited for him to elaborate, but he just sat in front of me on the bed, unmoving as a boulder in a breeze. He might be answering my questions, but he wasn't going to give me anything I didn't ask for. Eric never was Mr. Chatty, but he was usually the one driving the conversation, always pushing and manipulating to get the result he wanted.

He hadn't dropped an innuendo all night. Not that I was complaining, but I couldn't help but notice how intense his touch felt with my new vamp senses, or how wonderful he smelled, or how once again, I was alone in a bed with Eric.

I caught myself leaning toward him and quickly straightened my back. Apparently, my libido was amped up just as much as everything else.

Eric gave me an appraising look. "You are very composed for a newborn. Much more controlled. Most would have trouble thinking past blood and sex so soon after rising. It is impressive."

My control was impressive? Earlier I treated my own brother like a meal and even now I had to concentrate to keep from rubbing myself all over Eric. If this was composed, I couldn't imagine what a normal newborn would be like.

I took a swig from the True Blood I had put on the nightstand to steady myself. Eric was letting me lead the conversation and while I appreciated his patience and the space he was giving me to deal with this, I had the feeling that it was a very bad sign.

"What does it mean exactly that you're my…" I reached for the word that he used, "my maker?"

"I am responsible for you, for teaching you our ways, for your behavior." He leaned in, his laser eyes trained back on mine, his large hands closing around my forearms. "You are mine. You are under my personal care and protection. If you are taken, I will always be able to find you. If I call, you must come. When I order, you must obey."

So this was an extra layer of fealty I'd owe him in addition to the fact that he was my Sheriff. But which tie would be more important? "Who do you answer to first: your Sheriff or your maker?"

Eric's thumbs started making circles on the soft skin just below the crook of my elbow. The sensation was dizzying. "Your maker. Obedience to you maker is a compulsion as well as a social obligation. If your sire gives you a command, it is impossible to resist, no matter how much you want to."

His face was closed and distant and his head had turned toward the wall. It felt like the first time he had looked away from me all evening.

I tried to picture Eric in a cold, Scandinavian night a thousand year ago, famished and freshly turned, forced to obey and rely on the vampire who had murdered him.

Somehow, I doubted Eric's sire hadn't taken advantage.

"But that doesn't work on me, right? Like glamour didn't. You can't make me do anything I don't want to."

He turned back to me. "No," he said.

"But you thought you would be able to?"

Eric didn't answer.

I could feel the anger building in my chest. "So when you took me from Bill, it was so you could control me? So you could use my gift however you wanted? To still have the chance to screw me?"

Eric's blue eyes were glacial, the rage was rolling off of him. It was all I could do not to cringe back from the power of it. "I am still your maker, Sookie. You will still obey me. I will not command you without reason and rarely for something other than your own safety and well-being," he snapped each word off as if cutting it with his teeth. His contractions had disappeared and his accent was pronounced. "This is what you owe me. I did not have to turn you to use your gift or your body and even if Bill was your sire, as your Sheriff, I would have had access to both." His jaw clenched and he looked down his long nose at me. "If you still retain your gift, it will remain a valuable asset, but abilities like yours do not often make the change intact and I do not attach people to me for eternity for a fuck."

A charged silence settled between us as Eric's words hung in the air.

He was right, of course. Being my maker gave him more direct access to me, but it was naïve to think that whatever my form or whomever I was attached to, Eric wouldn't have been able to manipulate me to do his bidding. As a human, he could have threatened Bill or Jason and with me as a vampire, he had a more direct authority. Eric may have been opportunistic, but he wasn't the one who had killed me.

And what did he mean, 'if I retain my gift'? He didn't know I still had it?

"You mean, I might not be a telepathic anymore?" I asked carefully.

He glowered at me for a moment before answering. "Human with abilities like yours are rare, so there is no…" he searched for the right word, "standard for how you turn. From what I have heard, a few lose their gifts all together, in a few the gift is enhanced, but it seems that in most the ability translates to a more traditional vampire talent—something that is more of an extension of what vampires can already do."

I guess I drew the enhanced straw. Jason had always been an easy read, but I had never been able to hear as clearly as I did with him tonight without touching the person. Not to mention that I could tell my shields had improved. Instead of armored plates I had to concentrate to hold up, they now felt like a permanent part of my mind, lighter and more durable than before.

"Can you tell if you still have your gift, Sookie?" Eric asks like it's a causal question, his eyes slanting down to watch me with a hard scrutiny.

This was my chance. I never thought being a vamp could be a new start, but here it was. No one had to know my little disability was still a part of me. I didn't have to be Crazy Sookie anymore. I didn't have to be an asset, a useful tool. I could be a normal vampire.

I almost laughed at the absurdity of it. I'd be the most unspectacular vampire anyone's ever met. It'd serve Eric right for turning me.

"There's no one here to listen to." I shrugged. It was true. I hadn't gotten any flashes of Eric's mind at all, and I certainly wasn't going to try to listen to him. I was staying far away from vamp minds. If I could hear them, I didn't want to know. "But it feels different."

After a moment of considering my words, Eric stood and held a hand out to me. "Come."

I took his hand and he pulled me off the bed. "Where are we going?"

"My home."

I dropped his hand like it was on fire. "I am _not_ going home with you, Eric."

"Sookie," he said with a touch of pity in his voice, "you cannot stay here."

I put a hand on my hip and jutted my chin out. "And why not?" I wasn't about to let him come in and hijack my life anymore than he already had.

He gave me a look like I was the slow child in class. "You are a vampire now. There are things I must teach you. You are also a newborn. You will need to stay near me until you can control yourself. Unless you want a repeat of tonight's events?" He raised his eyebrows.

I winced. I had been so vicious and wild when I was hungry. I didn't want to think what would have happened if Eric hadn't showed up to stop me or if it happened somewhere with more people. "I could drink True Blood. Enough so I'm never hungry when I go around humans."

Eric shook his head. "It is not just a matter of appetite. Hunting is instinctual. For a new vampire, just being around humans can be too much. And if there were ever and accident where blood was shed…" He spread a hand out, letting me imagine the conclusion and it wasn't a pretty picture.

A broken glass, a slip of a knife, a bar fight—I'd be an 'unfortunate incident' waiting to happen. That wasn't a risk I was willing to take. I remembered the mesmerizing sound of Jason's heartbeat, the throb of the vein in his neck. If it was always like that I didn't think I could stand it.

"It'll get better though, right? I'll be able to stay by myself eventually?" I looked up at him.

His countenance was stony. "Eventually."

It looked like I was staying with Eric. "Can you give me a minute? I'll pack a bag."

He took my empty True Blood bottle and the washcloth and left the room. I sat at the foot of my bed with my head in my hands.

I was a vampire. It was like a mantra I had to repeat just to remind myself that this was real.

How did I end up like this? I just wanted a boyfriend. I wanted a husband I could fry bacon for in my sunny kitchen. I wanted children playing in the yard. But with my precious _gift_ that was all but out of the picture unless I found a Were or shifter. When I first met Bill, he asked me what I'd do and I told him grow old and die. Alone was the implication. But then Bill with his quiet mind had offered me another choice. I was willing to give up those other things if I could just find a man who loved me.

I thought Bill had. I had certainly loved him. But then he left me without so much as a goodbye, pensioned me off, and cheated on me. I got staked saving him. Killed someone for him. Then he raped me, killed me, and was going to do the one thing I told him I never wanted. It was like he made up a list of 'Things I Can Do To Hurt Sookie' and went down it point by point.

Maybe I settled too quickly with him. He was the first guy that offered me some real attention, the first male that I could actually be with. Bill was my first in every way and I became so attached to that. I had never wanted a lot of men. My ideal was a one and only.

That obviously wasn't going to happen anymore. In fact, Bill made sure my dreams were an impossibility. No more kids, no more sunny kitchen, no more eating breakfast. Even if my telepathy was in control enough to be with a human, I'd have to find one that would be willing to give up those things. He would grow old and die and I'd be left behind, eternally youthful. The same would be true for the two-natured if I could find one that could get over their distaste for vamps. And Eric had said that vampires don't do long term with each other.

Somehow, my life as a vamp was looking bleaker than my human life. I didn't even have the option of growing old and dying anymore.

I ground my teeth and slammed my heel against the footboard of the bed. The wood split with a sharp crack and after a few mournful groans, the frame gave out. The bed thumped to the floor with me on it.

Eric flashed into the room and looked down at me.

I burst into tears. I was an awful vampire.

He lifted me off the floor and pulled me to him. I was crying into his chest and he was stroking my hair.

"If you wanted to break the bed down, Lover, I would have been more than happy to help," Eric purred into my ear.

Choking out a wet laugh, I slapped his shoulder and leaned back.

"I ruined another one of your shirts."

His sky blue t-shirt was smeared with blotches of red from my tears. There'd be no saving it. No wonder vampires never cried, or maybe they were around blood so much they were used to it.

"If I stopped wearing them all together, would you stop crying?" Eric asked looking genuinely uncomfortable. I think he had reached his crying quota for tonight and he had been good with me for how nervous weeping women made him.

Stepping back, I wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand. "Don't worry, I'm done for now."

I looked down at my ensemble with its own red stains. The white silk nightie and panties were definitely not mine and if I was going anywhere outside this house, I needed some real clothes. I grabbed some jeans, a sweater, and a bra out of my closet and drawers under Eric's watchful eye. He practically pouted when I went into the bathroom to change.

I know most Supes don't have a problem with nudity, but I clearly hadn't developed that level of comfort yet. Especially not around Eric, though I'm sure he got a pretty good look whenever he must have dressed me.

When I came out of the bathroom, I spotted my small suitcase from the Jackson trip sitting by my slipper chair. I went over and picked the bag up. It was still packed and would do me for a while. I gave Eric a questioning look.

"You can come back later if you need more," he said after scoping the bag.

I nodded and we locked up the house. I'd have to find someone to check on it while I was going through vamp training camp.

My bag was loaded in the trunk and I slid into the low passenger seat of the Corvette. Pam must have dropped it off during one of my crying jags. I vaguely recalled hearing a car come up the drive.

Now Eric grunted as his car hit the ruts in the driveway and if I were still human, I'd be blushing with embarrassment.

"Sorry about the pot holes, I've been saving to get it re-graveled."

He looked over at me. "What about the money from Dallas?"

"Property taxes."

"Bill…" He seemed uncertain about how to finish that phrase.

"I never took money from Bill. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. It wouldn't be proper. I'm not a kept woman."

"But you were Bill's. It was his duty to assure you were properly cared for."

I shook my head. If that's how vampires thought about relationships, it was obviously operating on a much more archaic value system than mine. "I was his girlfriend, not his wife. My life was my responsibility, not his."

Eric huffed and I watched the woods speed by out my window. Riding with a vampire driver was significantly less terrifying once you were a vampire.

Thinking back to one of the first things Eric asked me about tonight, I asked, "So how did I get from your house to mine?"

"You teleported."

Teleported? As in Scotty beam me up? "So that's my vampire talent?" This could work. If everyone thought I had that, maybe they wouldn't doubt that I lost my telepathy. I just exchanged one tele- power for another. And I thought flying would be cool. I'd save a ton on gas.

Eric hesitated. "Teleportation is not a vampire magic that I have ever heard of. Our talents tend to be enhancements of things vampires already do in a way, or skills we had as a human. Very sensitive sense of smell, advanced fighting proficiency, photographic memory, making extra fang coagulant."

I was confused as to what he was getting at. "Are you saying I'm not a vampire?"

Eric smiled at me. "You are very much a vampire, my Sookie. But you are very much a mystery too." He turned back to the road and his profile grew serious. "You should not tell anyone you can teleport or do it unless Pam or I ask you to."

Great. Another weird quirk. I can't even be normal as a vampire.

"I don't even know how I did it, so I doubt that will be a problem."

"We will have you practice in secret then."

Of course Eric wanted to utilize my freaky talents. I remained quiet for the rest of our drive.

Finally, we pulled onto a wooded lane and at the end of it a handsome two-story that was all tan stone and glass emerged from the trees. Though it was probably bigger than what would traditionally be called a cottage, it definitely had that cozy feel nestled among the pines with the lake lapping behind it.

Eric parked in the two car garage next to a big, black extended cab pickup truck. I smirked at it as I got my bag out of the Corvette. If I hadn't seen the goods myself, I would think he was trying to compensate for something.

He paused at the door to the house. "This is my home, Sookie. Besides me, only you and Pam know its location."

I waited a moment to show I understood how significant the gesture was. "Thank you. I'll make sure to keep it that way."

He turned the doorknob and led me into the kitchen to begin his tour.

His home was beautiful and it seemed even larger on the inside. Every room was open and spacious with tall ceilings and big windows. Eric explained that he had automatic black out shudders that lowered for the day and gave extra security. The walls were all done in warm earth tones and the furniture had a lodge-like feel. Heavy, brown leather couches, stone fireplaces, thick rugs your toes could sink into. The effect was masculine and restive.

I gasped when he showed me the library and his eyes danced at my opened-mouthed gaping. With all those shelves of books, I knew which room would be my favorite.

It was getting close to dawn by the time the tour had finished. I could feel the weight of it in my blood. Eric opened a false wall in one of the ground flood linen closets and took me down to his safe room.

I stepped into the room and recognized the giant bed I woke up in at the start of this very long night. It seemed like forever ago.

"You are welcome to share the bed with me, Sookie." Eric offered, a smirk curling on his face.

I noticed a doorway on one of the walls that looked like it was another bedroom.

"What is it like? Dying for the day." I had never asked Bill about it and now that I could feel it coming, I found myself nervous about what would happen.

"It's not unpleasant. I imagine it is not entirely unlike sleep for humans. Though perhaps more sudden and much deeper. You sink into it and everything goes away until you wake."

I picked up my luggage and took it to the other room. I cleaned up a little in the attached bathroom and put on the PJs I had brought, before standing in front of the yellow and cream, Queen-sized bed.

I didn't like the idea of waking in this unfamiliar place. And as much as I hated encouraging Eric, I really couldn't handle being by myself right now either. My thoughts wouldn't stop churning in my head, knocking each other out of the way in an anxious succession. Waking up a vampire, attacking my brother, Bill, my temporary relocation, teleporting—it was too much.

Besides, it wasn't like Eric could try anything. He'd be just as dead as I was.

I walked back out to his room and he smiled at me from under the covers of his behemoth of a bed. He was propped on his elbows, his chest bare, and he reached over and tugged the sheets back for me.

"You better be wearing something under there," I said as climbed in.

"Of course." He scooted closer to me as I settled in and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me back against him.

I was going to stop him, but his embrace was reassuring. As a human, I had felt safe around him and now that I was a vampire, my blood practically hummed with safety and comfort when I was near him. It felt right. He might be manipulative and self-serving, but somehow I knew he'd watch out for me.

I felt the heaviness of dawn pushing down on my mind and limbs.

"You know, when all this vampire stuff sinks in, I'm going to be seriously pissed."

Eric's chuckle rumbled against my back and then I was gone.

***

* * *

**A/N-** Yes, I know I'm pulling a White Rabbit here, but this chapter took me a while to write because, well, it's longer (5,000+ words). The chapters from here on out will probably follow this theme. They'll be longer and more plot involved so they take me longer to write. Plus, as I get closer toward graduation in May, my RL gets busier. So hang with me here. I promise I'll keep putting chapters up.

I'm also going to be cross-posting my stories on livejournal. They'll still all be here on FF, but they'll be backed up over there. My livejournal is **http:// allhailaugustus . livejournal . com/** (just take out the spaces). It's friends only, so you'll have to be my friend!

So what vampire lessons do you think Sookie needs to learn? We're definitely taking a trip to Fangtasia too! Fun times.

"Lost in Time" is by Whitley. "All is Whole" by them would work pretty well too.


	5. These Fangs

**Chapter 5: These Fangs**

_Turn away, turn away  
I'm not sure  
I'd like you to see me this way  
Most days these fangs  
are inside someone  
so you can't see them when,  
when I smile at you  
_Theses Fangs – Say Hi to Your Mom

My eyes opened to some serious déjà vu. Eric was lying on his side, his arm draped over me, one leg thrown over mine—just like in Jackson. My body was sparking at his closeness, and I was flammable as a pile of tinder. My mind drifted back to how Eric had kissed me like a five alarm fire and how his hands had been everywhere, encouraging me to take what I wanted.

I didn't even realize that my greedy fingers had advanced up Eric's chest until his heated gaze settled on mine.

I bolted out of the bed. Keeping my back to Eric, I crossed my arms, clenching and unclenching my fists. I was hungry again. And horny. I had a feeling I should get used to those two needs showing up together.

I calmed myself down a bit and turned around.

Eric was stretching like a big cat on the bed in nothing but a tiny pair of red bikini style underwear, all his muscles displayed and flexing. My tongue ran over my fangs. I was itching to lick down the valley of his abs, sink my teeth into his hard body and see just how amazing his blood tasted in my new vampire form.

I wanted to devour him.

I let out a strangled choke before spinning back around and placing my palms flat against the wall. I had to start all over on getting myself calm.

Eric chuckled on the other side of the room and set the microwave to running. After it dinged, he brought me a warm True Blood.

"You should not deny yourself, lover. I would be more than willing to accept your attentions."

I rolled my eyes at him and took the bottle from him. "Thanks." After a few chugs, I felt significantly less like a hormone-crazed animal. Eric had put on a robe, which made me grateful and disappointed at the same time. He stood in front of me in charcoal grey cashmere, sipping his own blood.

For the first time in a long time, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. I always had a plan: a house to clean, groceries to get, dinner to cook, work to go to, skin to tan. Now what did I have? I was a guest in Eric's house, dinner was always the same and took a minute and a half to microwave, and Sam had most likely had to replace me since I hadn't come back for my shifts. Maybe I could get him to give me my job back after this was all over.

"So what exactly are we going to do tonight?" I finished off my True Blood and Eric switched bottles with me, giving me his half-full one.

"Fangtasia. There are clothes in your closet for you to wear." He indicated the other room.

My closet? I immediately passed the blood back to Eric and in a blink I was in the walk-in of the spare bedroom, pulling out clothes all in my size. I could feel Eric behind me, watching from the doorway.

"What is this?" I turned to face him, holding up a hanger with a floor length ball gown in one hand and a pair of designer jeans in the other. These weren't Pam's clothes and it wasn't like there were just a few pieces for Fangtasia. This was an entire wardrobe with outfits for any occasion.

He crossed his arms and leaned against the doorjamb. "Clothes. While you stay with me, I will provide everything you need." He tilted his head, waiting for me to challenge him.

I wasn't going to take the bait. Not yet at least. Taking in a deep, dramatic breath then letting it out, I hung the dress and the jeans back up. Crossing my arms and tilting my head, I asked, "So how long exactly do I need to stay with you?" Judging from the closet, we weren't talking about a few weeks like I had thought. This wasn't vamp boot camp, this was co-habitation.

"A while. Most likely several years," he said coolly.

I gaped, my mouth opening and closing like a fish. "Years?" I was certainly ready to take that bait now. "I have a life, Eric! I have friends, family, my own job, my own house, and certainly my own clothes! You can't just keep me here!" I was fuming. "It's not even like vampires are a big secret anymore! I'll just—I'll just…"

Go back to working at Merlotte's? Be Crazy Sookie, the secretly telepathic vampire barmaid? People could barely accept me when I was human. Bill had managed to incorporate himself into the community but it rarely extended beyond polite chatting. Even if my neighbors could wrap their heads around my new form, I doubted I was getting invited to any barbeques. Being able to come out only after dark would strip away almost any kind of social life I could have in our little town. Hell, the only evening service my church offered was on Christmas Eve.

And whether or not I wanted to admit it, even before Bill Compton walked into my life, I had been waiting for something to happen. Waitressing wasn't exactly intellectually stimulating but it was all I could manage with my telepathy. Now that my little curse seemed more manageable could I really keep serving burgers for the next twenty years? Until Sam died? What would be the point? What would I be waiting for this time?

Eric didn't say anything, letting the silence stretch between us. Finally, he bent down until his nose was nearly touching mine and his hands resting on my shoulders. "You will hear what I am about to say and you will listen."

He paused and all I could see were his blue eyes. I vaguely wondered if vampires had to blink, if I'd get even that split second reprieve from his intense stare.

"Your human life is over. It took you years to learn how to be a human and it will take years for you to learn how to be a vampire. We have our own laws, our own customs. You will owe fealty to your maker, to your sheriff, to your monarch. Their orders must be obeyed. You must learn to protect yourself and to live among other vampires. You must learn how to provide for yourself, how to hunt and feed and glamour."

His hands glided up my neck to cup my face. "As I brought you to this vampire life, it is my duty to teach you these things. In theory, it is my responsibility as a maker to provide for you because if I had not turned you, you could have gone back to your house and your clothes and your family."

There was a heaviness in my chest and the tears were coming back to my eyes. I gripped his arms. I needed something to hold on to.

"But that is not true in your case," Eric continued. "You would be finally dead if I had not turned you. Or you would be Compton's." He wiped my wet cheek clean with his thumb and kissed my forehead. "You are mine now, Sookie. Accept the things I give you."

Stepping back, he turned to leave. I didn't let go.

"Eric…"

He looked down at me.

I was stuck. The life I knew had just been stripped away and what was I left with? Eric. Well, Eric and a new existence I had no interest in living. And I hadn't even really been given a reason.

He had let me know that turning me was a big investment for him in both time and resources. But what was he getting out of it? It sounded like the chance of return on my telepathy was low. And he had told me in Jackson that other than the rare one night stand, vamps didn't knock boots with each other. So what made me worth the trouble? Was a one night stand and the possibility of a telepath enough?

Why would he do this to me?

I steeled myself and finally got the question out, "Why did you keep me here?"

"I was not ready to let you go yet." His brow furrowed as he concentrated on me. "I find you are too precious to waste."

Pulling a piece out of the line of clothing, he handed it to me. "Wear this."

Eric disappeared from the closet, leaving me holding a white sundress with red flowers.

***

The drive to Fangtasia was silent and with two vamps in the car, it really was dead quiet. Harhar.

I spent the time nervously smoothing my skirt and getting a handle on my new situation, and I guess Eric spent it thinking about whatever it is Eric thinks about. Maybe he was going over his to-do list for the night, maybe he was playing checkers. I didn't know and that was a relief.

What I did know was that apparently, Eric was now my own personal vampire Daddy Warbucks. But with better hair and more sexual tension. And I felt like Orphan Annie, awkward and out of place, living off his charity even if he was partially responsible for my needing it. I would never have been able to afford the things he was giving me and if I couldn't go back to Merlotte's, I lost what little income I had. Which meant I was totally dependent on Eric. I could already imagine the smirk on his face because of the leverage that would give him over me.

His indeed. After a few years of him providing for me and mentoring me, I'd be in so deep that I'd never be able to get out.

Yet, the idea of leaving him terrified me. I may have dated a vampire, but I had no idea how to be one. And if I had to pick a maker, I could do a lot worse than Eric.

That didn't mean I was ready to forgive him for turning me. Between vamp and finally dead, I never would have chosen vamp and I'm still not sure I would. The Supe world was violent and I didn't want to kill people. I didn't want a life so long that humans seemed like mayflies. I didn't want to give up kindness and trust and emotionality for survival.

I needed to talk to Bill first, but after that, I wasn't sure I would be terribly invested in staying.

When we got to the club, Eric led me through the employee entrance with his hand at the small of my back. I scowled at him, which he ignored. I was already annoyed at myself for wearing the dress he had handed me, the dress that was a more expensive replica of the one I wore the first time I set foot in Fangtasia. Mostly I was just glad he hadn't wanted me to wear the filmy black gowns like Pam wore.

If he thought he would be able to parade me around like some new doll though, he had another thing coming.

Thumping music and the chatter of conversations seeped into the back hallway from the bar. Things were in full swing for the night. Pam was waiting for us in Eric's office, and when she saw me, her sweet milkmaid face broke into a wide, fangy grin.

"Sookie." Pam approached, her eyes locked on me like I was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen, and she draped her arms around me. I froze. Pam was _hugging_ me? It took me a few seconds to recover enough to bring my arms up to encircle her too.

Her nose slid down my neck from jaw to shoulder, slowly taking in my scent. I closed my eyes and drew in Pam's own blend of fragrances. I could smell her Chanel perfume, her laundry detergent, her shampoo, and her own personal scent, which was as rich and mellow as melted ice cream. Underneath it all, another scent was welling up. It smelled like sex. Pam was aroused and it was making my new, livewire body excited.

"Pam," I said sharply trying to push her off, but she held me tight, "Let go of me."

"Pam," Eric's voice rumbled and Pam released me, taking a step back.

She looked dazed as she spoke to Eric, standing behind me, "I didn't think it was possible, but she smells even better now." Her dilated eyes roved up and down my body. "She is magnificent."

"Yes, she is." Eric smoldered down at me.

I crossed my arms and huffed.

"I'm right here," I grumbled as I took a seat on the leather couch. I was a vampire and they were still talking over me like I wasn't in the room.

I didn't like them leering at me either. I was already freaked out about the transformation in my appearance. While getting ready earlier, I had stopped in front of the mirror to inspect myself before stepping in the shower. The changes were amazing. My eyes had sharpened to the vivid blue grey of a stormy sea intensity you'd only see on movie posters, my teeth were white as china, my lips plump and red, my hair looked like liquid gold and my skin was flawless and luminescent. It was the effect people strived for with make-up and dyes and surgeries. My staking in Jackson must have been close enough to my turning to do some major healing on my scar. All that was left was a slight raise on the skin. You'd never notice it unless you knew it was there.

It was scary. It was supernatural. It was the best I had ever looked in my life and I was dead.

Eric sat down in his chair and Pam snapped back into business mode.

"The shifter just arrived. He is waiting at the bar to speak to you or Sookie," Pam informed us.

Tension knotted in my middle as Eric looked over at me. "Please?" I asked. "I need to talk to him."

"Bring him." Eric ordered and Pam swept out the door.

I raised my eyebrows at him. "I don't suppose I could get some privacy for this conversation?"

"No."

He leaned back and propped his feet on the corner of the desk, while I worried on the sofa. It felt like an eternity until Sam rushed into the room and wrapped me up in an embrace.

As soon as we came into contact, two things happened: 1) I was hyperaware that I currently had in my arms a warm, fang-extending, blood-filled creature, and 2) I was in his mind. I got a front row seat in his head for the flood of relief when he first touched me, for the broken thought of _Oh, thank God she's…,_ and for the exact moment my low body temperature, my noiseless and un-moving chest, and my dry, vampire scent came together to form a single conclusion in his consciousness. As he recoiled with revulsion that hit him like a slap in the face, it felt like a slap to me too. I could understand his reaction, but it was still upsetting. Sam had been one of the few people who had accepted me without reservation in my human life, but now it seemed that vamp might be a line he wasn't willing to cross.

The difference between us was that when he stepped back, the anger and sorrow were clear on his face, while I buried the pain of his rejection under a restrained façade. No tears. I was getting better at the stone-faced vamp thing.

"So, I'm a vampire." I had a hint of a lisp. I wasn't used to talking around the fangs yet.

Sam just stood there, the few lines around his eyes set out in high relief as his defeated gaze lingered on me. He was every bit a man in mourning and I discovered what it felt like to attend your own funeral.

When he spoke his voice was rough and distant, like it wasn't coming from his body, just through it, "What the hell happened, cher?"

I needed to give him the edited version. As mad as I was at Bill, I didn't want Sam or anyone else to resort to vigilante justice. I didn't know who would end up getting hurt and one dead person was more than enough out of this debacle.

"Things got out of hand in Jackson. They decided to turn me when I was dying."

"He's your maker?" His eyes flicked over toward the desk.

I nodded.

Sam turned toward Eric, who had been observing our exchange. "You better take better care of her now that she's one of your own or I've got a stake with your name on it."

"I can take care of my own self, Sam Merlotte." I was tired of the men in my life thinking they had the right to pass me between them.

"Yeah, and I can see how well that's worked for you," Sam snapped.

I kept my eyes wide open. I had cried too much lately. I wasn't going to do it anymore.

He sighed and ran his hand through his wiry, golden-red hair. "Sorry, Sookie. It's just that I knew you were going to get sucked into their vampire bullshit. And now…"

"And now I am one."

He looked away from me, his head lowered.

"I didn't mean for this to happen, Sam."

"I know you didn't, cher, but things are going to be different now."

I wanted him to hug me but I knew he wouldn't.

"Is Jason okay?"

Sam had angled his body toward the door. He was ready to leave whenever he had the chance.

"That's one of the reasons I came. He went to check on you last night and when I saw him today, he seemed to have forgotten that you were missing." Sam glanced at Eric.

I shot my own dirty look at Eric. Glamouring Jason that much might have been convenient, but I thought it was overkill. I'd need to make my own trip out to talk to Jason.

"Can I still come see you, Sam?"

He gave me a small, sad smile. "Any night. You'll always be welcome at Merlotte's."

Sam nodded to Eric and me and then, he left.

"You will like being a vampire," Eric said from behind his desk, "in time." He rose and came toward me. "Stay here," he ordered and he left too.

***

I don't know how long I had been sitting on the sofa in down time when Eric came back. He was followed in by a row of fangbangers that must have been trying to pass as triplets. Or at least, they all got their blonde hair from the same bottle and wore the same black tube dress. Pam followed the ducklings in and closed the door behind her.

When they saw me, the girls seemed to realize that there would be a vampire for each of them (I was surprised they could do basic math) and they pushed out their chests even more, pouting their lips and casting their eyes between us. It didn't look like any of them had a preference as long as it was a vampire.

"Sookie, can you hear them?" Eric waved a hand at the girls while keeping his focus on me. He was perched on the edge the desk and he crossed his bare arms over his chest, causing his biceps to be displayed in the most delicious way. He really shouldn't be allowed in the same room as me or wear anything other than a parka. It was too distracting.

I gave it a minute to make it look like I was really trying and then concentrated on feeling surprised and relieved. A smile slipped across my face and I lifted my big, round eyes to Eric.

"I don't hear anything!" I beamed. It was true. I couldn't hear a peep inside my new shields as long as I wasn't touching them. "I guess this is what it feels like to be normal. It's so quiet."

Eric considered me for a long moment. He didn't look near as trilled as I was at my announcement. More thoughtful, but I hardly expected that he'd throw a party for losing an asset.

Finally, with a nod from Eric, Pam directed the faux triplet with a heart-shaped face and a cute button nose to sit next to me on the couch. Eric settled on the other side of her and brushed the hair away from her neck. She got the idea and tilted her head, offering me her arched, exposed neck.

Eric traced her jugular with his finger and I watched, mesmerized by the rhythmic pulsing of the vein. "This is the easiest spot to feed from," he murmured, low and at vampire speed so the humans couldn't hear, "but any big vein will due. And there are some other very enjoyable locations." His hand moved along the inside of the girl's thigh and ghosted over her breast before coming back to her neck. The girl had moaned at his touches and her pulse had picked up like a drum roll.

Eric's glowing, sapphire eyes locked with mine. "Bite."

I leaned toward her. My fangs ached to be buried in her flesh and her aroma practically had me slobbering on myself. I snaked an arm around her back and rested my other hand on her knee to get closer to her. Her thoughts came flooding into my brain as I was bending to her neck.

_Yes, please!...Bite me…yes…maybe they'll both fuck me…what's she waiting for?...wish there were more guys…too many holes not enough poles…_

I drew back, shaking myself out of my trance. What was I doing? Did I really want to drink blood from this stranger who expected me to have sex with her? Was this who I was?

I jumped off the couch and put distance between me and the girl.

"I can't do this."

Sofa triplet's jaw dropped, before frustration tightened her features.

"You can and you will, Sookie," Eric said. His own fangs were out and his eyes were boring into me. "You are a vampire. You must learn how to feed."

I chewed on my lip. "I can drink True Blood."

Pam snorted. "That would become very unsatisfying very quickly."

Eric shot her an icy look then continued in his crazy vampire whisper. "True Blood is not always available and if you were in an emergency situation, you would be more likely to drain the human if you had never had real blood before. Taking blood from the source can be overwhelming at first. It is better for me to be here when you do it."

I could see his point and at some later date, I probably would break down and want to feed from people. From just being near a living person, I could get a sense of how much more gratifying drinking from a human would be compared to a bottle. It would be like asking a human if they'd rather consume flavored vitamin pills for the rest of their lives or real food. I don't know anyone who'd pick the pill over a slice of chocolate cake. It's not the flavor or nutrition that makes the difference; it's the experience of eating.

On the other hand, I'd never met a piece of chocolate cake that wanted to have sex with me.

Never had to worry about accidentally killing my food either.

"I'm not saying I never will, but could you just give me some time to get used to this?" I begged.

The triplets fidgeted and shuffled.

"Fine," Eric conceded. "But you must watch Pam and me feed tonight." He pointed to my place on the couch and I sat back down.

Pam looked back and forth between us, her eyebrows raised. I guess she wasn't used to seeing Eric compromise when he didn't have to.

He pulled Sofa Triplet up against him and his eyes found mine again. One of his hands massaged her breast and the other tipped her head to give him better access to her neck. He sucked and nibbled along her shoulder, working his way up. She whimpered and opened her legs. Hussy.

I could hear Pam's girl making some noises of her own but I couldn't pry my eyes off of Eric.

He gave the girl's vein a long lick and bit.

I could feel the lust rising within me from watching him suck at her throat. He looked so beautiful, so wild and animalistic with his golden hair fallen around his face, his blue eyes flashing as he kept them on me. The smell of blood and arousal was heavy in the air and the heady mix was making me dizzy with want.

Eric finally released her, his lips tinted red. As soon as he had sealed her punctures, I was in his arms and those lips were on mine.

I could taste the blood in his kiss and I groaned with pleasure. His tongue slipped into my mouth, teasing my fangs. I pressed my breasts into his chest, my fingers digging into his hair and he squeezed my ass as I ground my center into his erection.

I was on fire for him, pulling at his clothes, trying to get more, trying to get closer.

That is, until he pulled away.

"I have to take this." He pried me off himself and kissed my forehead before taking his cell phone from Pam.

I sat on the couch dumbfounded, hands still out to reach for Eric.

Pam had already glamoured the three girls and was herding them into the hallway. After a look from Eric, she grabbed my wrist and tugged me along too.

I was trying turn down my libido enough that my sane mind could take over as Pam walked us all into the club and guided me to sit in Eric's booth.

I touched my lips gingerly. "What was that?" I asked. I was a bit out of it. Eric's kisses could do that to a girl. In a way, coming in contact with his lips was like getting hit by a Mac truck.

Pam smirked at me from across the table. "That was you dry humping our maker."

"Our?" Yes, that was the part that got my attention.

"Yes, Eric turned me too. We are sisters."

I gaped at her while she ordered me an O- True Blood from one of the waitresses. Big sister Pam?

"He killed you, you mean."

The corners of Pam's mouth turned down. "He made me a vampire. I have never regretted it. I have always loved being what I am."

I found that hard to believe. "You weren't angry when you found out?"

She looked out over the crowd of fangbangers, the writing mass of black, trying to remember. "I was shocked at first. You must remember that before the Revelation, almost no one knew vampires were real. I had never heard of them before. It wasn't like now, where people volunteer for it. There was no choice in the matter. You simply woke up being something completely different."

The waitress dropped off my blood and Pam waited for me to take a sip to continue.

"Eric left me on my bed after he drained me. Of course, my family buried me thinking I had died from some mysterious illness. He dug me up so I wouldn't have to wake in my coffin and dig myself out. He held me and explained it all to me. It took me a few days to understand my nature but I found it freeing. Women had very few choices in those times. It felt good not to be bound by those rules, to have some power."

I tried to imagine Eric holding a young, confused Pam like he did me. A part of my heart twisted knowing that he had done that before, probably many times, and in a way, I was just like Pam. "Were you ever intimate with him?" Was that what he thought all my urges and his niceness led to?

"I wanted to have sex with him as soon as I was out of my funeral clothes. And we did have sex. Many, many times." She grinned.

"I thought vampires didn't make it a habit of sleeping together."

"Usually we don't, but maker and child is different. The child can never have power over the maker, so there is little risk. Not all such ties are sexual though. Ours was, but it did not take long for my interest to expand. I wanted to try everything I had been denied as a human."

"So being Eric's child can make me want to have sex with him?"

Pam leveled her gaze at me. "You wanted to have sex with him when you were alive, didn't you?"

I didn't answer that. I had been in a relationship and sex with Eric came with too many issues. Besides, he was gorgeous. Who wouldn't want to have sex with him?

"Eric is a good master. He will take his responsibilities to you seriously, but expects obedience and respect in return. He won't demand sex from you, unless you want to give it." She reached over and tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear. "Your desires will be much stronger as a vampire, but it will be up to you how to direct them."

I thought back to Eric and me making out on the couch like desperate teenagers. Desperate teenagers who didn't need to breathe. He might not be forcing me to focus my attentions on him, but he wasn't giving me a lot of options either. I wasn't into women and he was the only man in the room. I didn't think that was coincidence.

"Can you really not hear them anymore?" Pam waved a hand idly at the humans.

"No." I met Pam's eyes.

"Pity. It was a useful skill."

"It was a curse," I said sharply. "I'm lucky it's gone."

Pam considered me for a moment and decided to change the subject. "I always did like that dress. It's very you."

"It looked better when I had a tan."

Pam smiled. "Maybe we'll get you a red one with white flowers."

I shook my head. "I think one's enough."

***

It was well after closing by the time Eric slid into the booth next to me. Pam had long since disappeared. She spent about an hour or two with me, giving me vampire fashion tips and taking my mind off all the parts of being a vampire that made me so uncomfortable before she went back to work. All the other vampires in the bar seemed to know to keep an eye on me, intercepting curious humans before they got too close. It made me feel like a bomb. Or a gangster. It was strange.

"We have been summoned by the Queen." Eric set a True Blood in front of me and drank from his own.

"The Queen?" I probably looked baffled, because I was. "Is that normal? How would she even know me? I'm like one day old."

"I had Pam register you. But no, new vampires are not routinely called to see the Queen."

Well, the only thing special about me was the fact that I was a telepath. I had a suspicion about how she would know that. "You told her about me, didn't you?"

"You were a valuable asset. You had to be reported." He shrugged. Instead of looking at me, he was facing forward. It made me think bad news was coming. Eric had always been big on eye contact.

"She knows I'm not anymore, right?"

"She has been informed."

"But she doesn't believe me?"

"Officially, the Queen accepts my word."

I growled, _actually _growled in annoyance at the face he couldn't just give me a straight answer. My hand flew up to cover my mouth I was so surprised at the sound that came out of me. Eric finally looked at me, amusement dancing in his eyes. I glowered at him.

"Unofficially?"

"Unofficially, she will most likely try to test you in some way. It would be very bad for me if it looked like I was trying to deceive her," he said with a level voice, staring at me intently.

I returned his stare. "You don't have anything to worry about. As far as I can tell, my telepathy isn't about to come back." _Because it never left_, I added silently to myself.

After a moment he nodded and took a swallow of blood.

"We will be going to a secondary house today. Our appointment with the Queen is shortly after first dark. We'll have to be transported during the day in our coffins."

"Coffins?" I could already feel myself getting queasy. That was not a part of being a vampire I looked forward too.

Eric smiled. "Yes, coffins."

***

That's how I ended up in a suburban home in Shreveport with three coffins sitting in the living room. Pam was already there with changes of clothes that would be suitable for meeting a Queen when we arrived. I also got introduced to Eric's day man, Bobby Burnham, who was so gaga over Eric, I wouldn't be surprised if he had an Eric shrine at his house complete with pink construction paper hearts and drawings of what their kids would look like. I just hoped that would make him extra protective about our loading with Anubis while we were dead to the world.

When the weight of dawn began to press on me, Eric indicated that it was time. I lifted the polished wooden lid and took in the red velvet interior. Eric said this was a loaner until I could pick out my own. I didn't want to think about that too hard. Coffin shopping with Eric was something I'd just have to wait to experience.

"Would you like to share my coffin, Sookie?" Eric asked when he saw me hesitating. "We'd get to snuggle all day." He grinned.

That knocked me out of it. I wasn't going to share a coffin with Eric because I was scared of a wooden box. That would be pathetic. Plus, I didn't want to wake up on top of him in an enclosed space. Who knows where I'd find his hands.

I pulled up my big girl panties and laid down. I nodded at Eric and he closed the lid.

I shut my eyes and tried not to think of Poe-like stories of being buried alive or suffocating. I didn't need to breath anymore, I could most likely dig myself out if I got buried, and I wouldn't even get muscle cramps from resting in the same position all day. Instead, I listened to Eric and Pam getting in their coffins, to Bobby pacing in the foyer, his heart providing a soft percussion underneath his footsteps on the tile. And then, I was dead.

***

* * *

**A/N-** I just wanted to thank everyone for the reviews. I haven't been great about replying to them lately but I love reading them. They make my heart swell. I'm on twitter now under the user name allhailaugustus. Talk to me. I'm lonely.

Chapter 6: We're off to see the Queen. Will Sookie finally lose her shit? Will Bill show up and be a douche? Will Pam fall in love with a cake decorator and write a book about kinky things to do with fondant? Find out Next time on Love Me Dead!


	6. Monster

Chapter 6 Monster

Evil glare under her eyelids,  
rudely wears us on her mouth,  
trembling when we see her,  
run and hide she's coming around to

tear out the strings,  
tear out the strings,  
tear out the strings,  
connected to our hearts.  
_-Monster, You Say Party! We Say Die!_

My coffin was already open when I woke. It was a small relief to wake up in soft lighting looking up at a low gold ceiling instead of the dark of a small enclosed space. It made me slightly less like a pair of shoes stuck under the bed.

I crawled out of my box and stepped out into our suite.

It was hard to tell if the room was more typical vampire or New Orleans. Everything was done in black and gold with ornate French-style furniture that I could actually tell were antiques (they smelled old). The lighting was dim, the fabrics were plush and lustrous, and a heavy four poster bed dominated the room. It was expensive, dark, sensual, and a bird's eye away from luxury bordello.

Eric was dressing in front of a gilt three panel mirror.

If there was anyone for whom more than one mirror was overkill, it was Eric. He and his three reflections were overwhelming. I watched, mesmerized, as the muscles in his arms worked while fixing his cuff-links and his golden hair brushed over the black button down covering his broad shoulders.

He didn't seem to notice me ogling him though he must have heard me moving around. Instead, his attention was fixed on the mirror in front of him as he slid into his grey suit jacket. I could almost feel the intensity of his focus, how it created a bubble of personal space around him. He was a warrior preparing for battle. His armor for this fight just happened to be Armani.

I grabbed a True Blood that had been left for me on a side table and my garment bag before slipping into the bathroom. If all this hullabaloo was over me, then I'd better be ready for it.

By the time I came out, Eric and Pam were waiting for me in the living room.

If I was perplexed when I saw the Queen-meeting ensemble Pam had picked out for me, I was even more so now that I saw what she was wearing. While there were small differences between my attire and Pam's, we were essentially wearing the same knee-length, pale pink chiffon dress. The color and delicate, swishy layers of the skirt made us look as sweet and innocent as a pair of extras from Swan Lake. Only with heels instead of toe shoes.

Eric's grey suit went well with our dresses and the three of us together with our loose blond hair, blue eyes, and complimentary clothing looked like a matching set.

I took up a spot next to Pam while she stared down at a particularly interesting piece of carpet. She had been giving me the cold shoulder since she met us with our luggage last night and it seemed the trend was continuing.

Eric drew himself from his thoughts to look me over. After giving me a small nod of approval, he gestured to the space next to where he was lounging on a settee. Even when he was tense, he managed to project the impression that he was relaxed and in control with his legs stretched out in front of him and an arm resting along the back of the sofa. He'd make a brilliant actor.

I had expected one of them to start talking once I was sitting, but when they didn't, I cleared my throat. "So, once I pass this test, we can go home?" That was the thought that was going to getting me through this. I'd keep my shields up and when the Queen got no response on her test, the three of us would be on the next Anubis van back to Shreveport.

Eric gazed down at me, his handsome face inscrutable. "No matter what happens tonight, you must do what I tell you immediately and without question. Can you do that, Sookie?"

His answer sounded suspiciously unlike the yes I was hoping for. I gave myself a moment to internally chafe at his request before I agreed. I was willing to concede that Eric was the authority on vampire politics here and therefore, our best chance of getting out of here. I had no idea what we were about to walk into.

"Take your cues on how to act from Pamela. Mostly you will stand and remain quiet. You are only to speak when a question is addressed to you." Eric paused, reaching out to smooth back my hair. "It is important for Sophie-Anne to come to the conclusion that you are no different from any other newborn vampire as quickly as possible."

He stroked my cheek, a solemn expression set on his face as Pam continued to look anywhere else. "She's not going to just let me go, is she?"

Eric's silence was all the answer I needed.

There was a knock on the door and Eric rose. He held out an arm to Pam and then the other to me. Linked together, we went to answer the door.

We were led through the Queen's compound to a pair of double doors guarded by a pair of humongous, bearded men who looked like they could be brothers. Or wrestlers. Or both. They nodded at Eric and then opened the doors for us.

Pam and I followed Eric into the large sitting room. I kept my eye on Pam and when she stopped and bowed, I did too.

It was a nice floor. Off-white marble with dark veins. Very easy to clean.

"Eric," said a voice as hard and ringing as a steel bell.

"Your Majesty," he answered.

We all rose.

Sophie-Anne's dark brown eye's zeroed in on me. She was immaculate, seated primly on a love seat with her reddish-brown hair swept up into an elegant twist, her makeup and clothing done up to the nth degree. There were mannequins in window displays that wished they could look this put together. "This is your new child—the telepath?" she asked, still looking at me like a curiosity picked up at the flea market.

"Former telepath, your Majesty."

"Yes, of course," she said and motioned to a vampire in the corner. "I have arranged for donors for us. I find it's never a good idea to put off newborns."

Four heartbeats entered the room and my head swiveled toward the sound. I felt like a snake that just had a live mouse dropped in its cage. There was no way I could not pay attention to them.

Three women and a man were led over to us by a truly hideous vampire. Most vampires are good looking, but this one…even if his skin hadn't been as wrinkled as a raisin, the thin albino still would have been a creepy in my books. Besides him, the only other vampire in the room was a fair-haired man/boy who stood guard behind the Queen, eyeing the rest of us with a saber and gun at the ready.

Six vampires and four donors. I guess either the staff didn't get snacks or someone was sharing.

I was standing on the edge of our group and one of the donors brushed my bare arm as they were led toward the Queen by the albino.

And there it was, bright as neon. Sino-AIDs.

I steeled myself and opened my mind. Three of the donors' thoughts were hornets' nests of fear and anxiety. Before they were brought here, a member of the Queen's staff had mentioned that blood test results would be back tomorrow on the all donors. They didn't even realize they had been tested. Oh, and staff member had told them a heart-wrenching story (in the literal sense) about what happened to the last donor with Sino-AIDs.

All three knew they had it, but for different reasons had decided to stick around. One was still hoping to find someone to turn her, one liked the neck-sucking thing a bit too much to give it up voluntarily, and the man had a grudge. He wanted to pass it on in revenge for his little sister who was killed in a vampire attack.

It was Jerry all over again.

I tried to remain calm as the Queen picked the black-haired female donor, the only one who wasn't thinking about skipping town tonight. Leaving the three diseased and sweating brunettes for us. Eric's eyes flicked over to me. Could he tell I was freaking out? Was it that obvious? Or did he just think I was nervous about feeding from a person for the first time?

Which I was. The whole poisoned apple dilemma was a delightful freebie.

I supposed that this was my test. It was too much of a coincidence that Sophie-Anne had picked the only clean donor. A non-telepath would never have known there was anything wrong with our donors. My choices were to admit I still had my telepathy and face the consequences or keep silent and we could all take a hit of Sino-AIDs laced blood.

I wish Eric had been more specific about what would happen if the Queen found out I was a telepath. Or I wish I knew exactly what Sino-AIDs could do to a vampire. I was really operating on a lack of information here.

Eric frowned and took the male donor. I didn't get the sense that he actually wanted him. I just think he didn't want me to have him. Jerk. Pam chose the curvier woman, leaving me with the waif-like creature who was dying to be a vampire. She looked hopefully at me with muddy brown eyes. So not happening.

The Queen indicated that we could take a seat on the other sofas before attending to her own donor. Pam pulled her meals on wheels down next to her on the settee and brushed the light brown hair away, arching down toward the girl.

_Don't!_ I practically screamed at Pam in my head. She froze and then ran her nose along the crook of the girl's shoulder and neck. Her eyes darted up to mine as she slowly pulled away from the girl.

Had she heard me?

Eric had left his donor next to Pam's to come over and help me.

"Is she not feeding on her own?" the Queen asked. She hadn't yet drunk from hers. My meal was apparently the main event the others were waiting to see. Manboy even looked interested from behind the Queen.

"Sookie had a bit of an incident yesterday. She's still unsure of her control." Eric gave Sophie-Anne one of his crowd-pleasing smirks, while I tried to look embarrassed and apologetic about still having to feed with the training wheels on, so to speak.

Eric and I sat with the donor between us and the Queen, Pam, and Manboy watched. It was decision time. I looked at Eric. The idea of intentionally doing something that would hurt him made my skin feel like it was going to peel off. I had trouble even thinking about it. That couldn't be quite natural, could it?

Whatever I chose, he wasn't getting out of this unscathed. The same was most likely for Pam and me too.

I hooked an arm around vamp-wannabe's waist and she tilted her head, opening up her neck for me. I licked the girl, feeling for the pulse while keeping my eyes on Sophie-Anne. If she was willing to poison three of her own subjects, she was going to watch. I wasn't going to be the first to back down in this game of chicken. I was hoping Eric and Pam were old enough to get over a case of Sino-AIDs and if the Queen thought I valued my vampire existence so much that I'd be willing to sacrifice my freedom for it, she clearly didn't know me very well. Our gazes were locked as my mouth lowered toward my meal.

"Hold it, Miss Stackhouse," Sophie-Anne commanded just as my fangs scraped over skin. It was all I could do to stop from sinking my teeth into flesh, from letting the bloodlust take over. Eric's big hand circled the back of my neck and pulled my head away. I was simultaneously relieved and annoyed. I had to remind myself that I really didn't want to drink Sino-AIDs blood in the first place.

Sophie-Anne considered me carefully. "Waldo, are these the donors I told you to dismiss last week?" she asked the albino. Somebody was in trouble, or at least, in pretend trouble.

Waldo's eyes widened as he searched for the right answer, but the look on the Queen's face snapped his mouth shut. She was so rigid and alien. There was nothing human there to reason with. It would be like trying to argue with a silver tea service. A silver tea service that could kill you.

He swept the donors out of the room just as swiftly as he had brought them in. "There'll be replacements waiting in your rooms after the meeting," he sneered to us as he passed by. He left with the donors and then it was just us, the Queen, and Manboy.

Eric was rubbing my back to help calm me down but I was still vibrating like a struck tuning fork. I stole a glance at him and Pam to see what their reactions to the Queen's bloodtease was, but they were both locked up tight. If they suspected something was going on or if this was out of the ordinary for Sophie-Anne, they were keeping it to themselves. It's not exactly like they could chide her for poor hospitality or that she'd be likely to apologize.

The Queen let the silence draw out between us before she spoke again. "I am very disappointed with your performance lately, Eric."

His hand stilled on my back and he sat up straighter. He didn't seem surprised. If anything, what I was getting from him was resignation. He expected this to happen.

"One of my agents was held captive and tortured for information while under your protection, and a project he was working on for me was almost usurped by another state." Sophie-Anne quirked her head and paused. "You did manage to retrieve it, but at the cost of a valuable asset," she said, her eyes flicking to me, "and possibly a vampire under your care from another state. Have you been able to recover him?"

My mind was whirring to figure out who she was talking about. What other vampire went with us to Jackson? Oh no.

Bubba.

"They asked me if I would be coming back for the crucifixion," I blurted out.

The four other vampires in the room stared at me like I was speaking in tongues. It was an uncomfortable feeling.

"When I was leaving Russell's compound with Bill in the trunk," I hurried to explain, "the Were guards at the gate asked me if I was coming back for the crucifixion. I think they meant Bubba."

The Queen raised her perfectly groomed eyebrows at Eric while his attention lingered on me.

That was probably an instance where I really should have kept my mouth shut.

"A vampire matching his description was crucified the night Compton was recovered," he confirmed. "There have been no sightings since."

"Tennessee will require recompense from me. Bubba may have been damaged, but they were quite fond of him. He was something of a state treasure." She clearly wasn't pleased about that. Her brow furrowed. "There is also the matter of you breaking our laws and denying my will concerning the turning of this one."

I looked to Eric. I was lost on those accusations. I was still trying to deal with Bubba being relegated to the past tense.

I doubted Sophie-Anne would be so concerned with the Louisiana state law against turning people against their will. It was probably one of the least prosecuted on the books. The vampire who killed you and turned you would be your maker and I was pretty sure the only way you would be able to accuse your maker was if they were finally dead.

"I was not aware your Majesty had plans for Sookie," Eric said, pronouncing his words slowly and precisely. If it was anyone but Eric, I would have said he was hesitant.

"Isn't it obvious?" The Queen was leaning on the arm of her loveseat, face smooth as a porcelain doll. "I sent Compton to Bon Temps to secure her."

Her word washed over me, hot and hurtful as embers from a fire. I sat there on that couch with my skirt curling over my knees, fingers twined in my lap, a decorative pillow wedged against my hip and felt for the first time, truly dead. I was a soul tethered to a corpse, my body hollow and yawning around me. My unbeating heart was cracking apart like the shell of an egg and Sophie-Anne just kept talking.

"He was to keep her alive at all cost and bring her into my service. If something unfortunate was to happen, he alone was to turn her." Her eyes flashed. "You interrupted him mid-turn."

"Compton was injured. He was in no shape to turn anyone." Eric's own eyes blazed back. "My blood was more likely to bring her over with her gift."

"Yet here she sits, ungifted."

Well, that was ridiculous. A giggle escaped me before I slapped a hand over my mouth to hold in the sound. If only she knew.

At my interruption both Eric and the Queen drew themselves out of their staring match to turn to me.

"You sent Bill to Bon Temps? For me?" I asked the Queen.

Sophie-Anne's eyes narrowed at me and her ruby lips pursed. "She's damaged," she stated and the manboy moved around to the front of the couch with his saber drawn.

I laughed and the harsh, manic sound rolled around in the high-ceilinged room and off the tinkling crystals of the chandelier. "You sent Bill to Bon Temps and now I'm damaged." I laughed so hard the tears dripped down my cheeks. And my only thought was that the blood would stain my pretty ballerina dress.

Eric gripped the back of my neck again. "Stop this," he hissed into my ear. "You'll bring harm to all of us."

I came down off my laugh high, wiping my eyes on the backs of my arms, leaving red smears. Those bloody streaks on my pale skin jarred me back into myself.

"If you all are the result of living so long, maybe it's a good thing most humans stay dead." I sniffed.

These ancient beings had been around for hundreds of years and yet behaved so much like children, just taking what they wanted without regard to anyone else. Sophie-Anne wanted me so she dispatched Bill to fetch me like milk from the market. She couldn't have asked me. Couldn't have made me an offer like any normal person would do. Eric wanted to keep me, so he did. Sophie-Anne was planning the same thing. And Bill…

I couldn't even find a place to start on Bill. I must have seem like such a naïve little fool, so eager to please him, so willing to love the first man who put in a little effort. And I was just a job for him. I made it so easy, he must have laughed himself to rest every morning.

They had trapped me and I didn't even know it.

"The world doesn't need any more monsters," I said.

"Sookie," Eric growled beside me, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him. I didn't want to look at any of them.

The pressing need to get out of this room and away from these vampires was building inside of me. Someone grabbed me, tried to bring me back to myself, but the pressure was too much. With a pop, I was gone.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh, my. It's been a while. But I've finished my schooling, my teaching, graduated, moved, went to 3 graduations (other than my own) and a wedding. So all that stuff is done. Chapters should come faster than it took the last one. I've also am working on an All Human story (two if I'm being truthful), so look out for those or add me to author alert.

Any theories about where Sookie went? Or about how Sophie-Anne will react to the amazing disappearing baby vamp?


	7. Oh Sister or Death for My Birthday

**Chapter 7: Oh, Sister or Death for My Birthday**

_Oh, sister, when I come to lie in your arms  
You should not treat me like a stranger.  
Our Father would not like the way that you act  
And you must realize the danger._

…

_Oh, sister, when I come to knock on your door,  
Don't turn away, you'll create sorrow.  
Time is an ocean but it ends at the shore  
You may not see me tomorrow._

Oh, Sister- Andrew Bird (Bob Dylan cover)

In the blink of a vampire eye, I went from sitting across from the Queen of Louisiana to landing flat on my back, too stunned to move.

I had endured a lot in the past week: an unfaithful boyfriend, major organ damage, rape, killing, being killed and turned. Even I was tired of running through the litany. But somehow, with the Queen's announcement, Bill's deception managed to make everything that had happened just a little bit worse.

It wasn't just confined to the last week either. It was hard not to replay the last six months in my head, watching it from the outside like some tawdry romance with me, the small-town virgin, chasing the cool and aloof mystery man. And as much as I wanted to make Bill the mustache-twirling villain, I was the one who ended up distorted.

I fought for Bill in Jackson. I fought for him because that's what you do for people you care about. I hated that Bill made my sacrifice, my love for him feel cheap and foolish. I was the one who couldn't see what was in front of her face. I was the one who lost everything for a self-constructed fantasy.

He made it so easy to blame myself. To say that if only I had asked more questions, if only I had been a bit smarter or more shrewd that things would have happened differently. That right now, I'd be getting home from a day shift at Merlotte's to find Gran reading Anne Rice at the kitchen table.

And who knows? Maybe I would.

Yes, my decisions were what got me to this point. I was willing to accept responsibility for that, but no one should have to feel guilty about being manipulated and lied to, especially not when it's by someone who's survived by hiding who he is for over 130 years.

As a human, I had to try to navigate the supernatural community with only the barest idea of what I was dealing with. Now as a vamp, I was finally getting to learn the rules and players. I wasn't going to be made a fool of again.

If I even wanted to stay like this, that is.

I don't know how long I sat on the floor, eyes fixated on the tiered ceiling while my mind ran its terrible courses. And as little as I wanted to come back to the real world, the small, insistent tug of Eric's call was pulling me back to the situation at hand.

I wiped the blood from my eyes and looked around. I hadn't given the place I had popped into much attention past the fact that I was alone.

My own face looked back at me from the three panel mirror Eric had been using. I was back in the gaudy black and gold room we had started the night in. I hadn't even made it out of the Queen's compound. Go me.

I was a mess with my crimson watercolor raccoon eyes and blood trailing down my chest and smeared on my hands. Another reason why vamps probably avoided crying—no way this could pass for human. It was straight up terrifying. Anyone with any sense would surely run screaming in the opposite direction. I looked like a horror movie extra.

I hoisted myself off the ground, and went to the bathroom for some clean up. I was feeling weaker than usual, which is saying a lot for a vampire. That was one thing I could credit this new form with: it felt fantastic.

When I had taken Eric's blood in Jackson, it felt like I had lightning sparking in my veins, like I could scale buildings and tip cars. The difference was that now I didn't just feel like I could do those things, I knew that I could do them. It was an exhilarating and constant feeling. And if I could tip cars as a newborn, and Bill could pose as a tornado at 130, lord only knew what Eric could do at 1,000. He was probably like the Hulk, only less green and angry.

I washed my face in the sink and watched the pink water spiral down the drain. As much as I didn't want to go back to the Queen, I knew I would have to. I had left Pam and Eric in a bad position, and while I was mad at Eric for turning me, I wasn't the kind of person to leave others with problems that I created. Plus, I was certain that the longer I hid, the more the Queen would think I had something worth hiding.

I patted my face dry with a towel and when I raised up, I saw Pam in the mirror standing behind me.

She clamped a hand over my mouth and slammed me back against the wall. I struggled against her and she smacked my head on the wall again. "Stop it," she growled in my ear. "I'm not the only one looking for you and there are things you need to know."

I stilled and she kept her mouth to my ear. Her body pressed against mine was stiff with tension, she was furious.

"Eric has been taken into the Queen's custody. We suspected such. He overstepped his bounds turning you, but there is always a price for things worth keeping. Once the Queen had made certain you had lost your ability, Eric have would served his punishment and been released. With your little stunt, things have become much more precarious." Her hand around my face squeezed, her fingers digging into my jaw right below my ear. I squirmed.

"You have gained the Queen's interest. She will try to determine what you can do and if Eric can be trusted to command you, since you will always obey him first. With his age, his fighting skills and reputation as Sheriff, Eric has his own value." If the situation were less intense I would have snorted. I'm sure 1,000 year old Vikings were hard to come by. "Make sure your value is always less than his. Make sure that Sophie-Anne knows that you and Eric are completely loyal."

I could read between the lines of what Pam was saying. A monarch would never want to give an underling too much power, especially an underling that was already pretty powerful by himself, for fear of being overthrown. Of course, strong underlings also helped make the monarch stronger too, so it was a sword that could cut either way.

Pam pulled back so she could look thoughtfully at my face. "I have promised our maker that I would protect you in his absence, but understand that if there is a choice between you and him, there is no choice."

Well, at least I knew where I stood with Pam. She pulled her hand away from my face and let me go. I rubbed my aching jaw and kept my eyes on the tile floor. I think she would have cracked bones if I had been human.

"I really didn't mean to do that in front of the Queen, Pam." I really hadn't. Sure, I wanted to get out of that room but there's a big difference between wanting to disappear and actually having it happen. It was like my distress had triggered something inside me and poof. I was gone. "This ability didn't exactly come with a training manual."

I looked up at Pam and she patted me on the shoulder in quick little taps. "Just remember that this has never happened to you before. Eric told Sophie-Anne that he thought the teleporting knocked you out, which is why you weren't able to answer his call. We'll have to make that believable."

I looked at Pam curiously and jagged smile etched onto her face. "Night, Sookie."

Before I could speak a word, Pam grabbed me by my hair and slammed my head into the marble countertop.

* * *

A/N: So, I know this is a baby chapter, but I wanted to get something up since today is my birthday. I've already got most of the next (regular sized) chapter finished and it should be up on Friday. If you're in the States, have a great Labor Day weekend. I'm a Labor Day baby (haha) so it's always one of my favorites!


	8. Here's Your Future

**Chapter 8: Here's Your Future**

_God reached his hand down from the sky  
He flooded the land then he set it on fire  
He said, "Fear me again. Know I'm your father."_

_So bend your knees and bow your heads  
Save your babies, here's your future  
Yeah, here's your future_

Here's Your Future – The Thermals

...

I groaned, squeezing my eyes shut tighter against the throbbing ache in my head. Being a vampire was starting to feel like a series of blipping in and out of consciousness. Maybe I should get used to it.

Soft hands gently touched my forehead. "Sookie?"

I opened my eyes, blinking until my vision came into focus. "Hadley?" I squinted. The telltale glow was there. "You're a vampire."

"Yeah, it seems to be catching," she snarked and dabbed at my skin with a wet cloth. "Your maker must not be taking good care of you. You're healing slowly even for a newborn."

"Eric takes great care of me," I said defensively. Feeling less like a cracked egg by the second, I propped myself on my elbows and took the rag from Hadley, who seemed glad to be relieved of the duty. From what I could tell, I was back in the room we had met the Queen in earlier, but it was empty aside from the two of us.

There was something else missing. The buzzing presence of Eric at the back of my mind was gone. A jolt of panic shot through me.

"What happened? Where's Eric?" I asked, frantic.

"You passed out." Hadley frowned at me. "Your maker has been taken down to the dungeon for punishment."

"Why can't I feel him?"

"The cells down there are spelled so makers can't call their children or anything like that. His other child—Pam?" She looked at me for conformation and I nodded. "Pam asked to take you but Sophie-Anne sent her back to Shreveport to act as Sheriff. You'll be staying with me."

I stared at Hadley's bored face. Apparently, I had been pried out of my life an inserted into another while I was unconscious. Again. I was getting really fed up with people dictating the terms of my life to me.

"What's going to happen to Eric?"

Hadley shrugged. "Depends what he did and how pissed Sophie is about it." Her eyes brightened and the corner of her mouth crooked up. "You seen Waldo? The fuck-ugly, wrinkly bastard?"

I grimaced. "The albino?"

"That's him." She seemed pleased at my reaction. "He used to be of Sophie's favorites, but then she _brined_ him. Kept him in a tank a tank of salt water like a pickle till he turned into the wet sack you see today." She sniffed. "Not that there's that much of a difference."

I tried to imagine the beautiful Eric being kept in a tank until his skin was wrinkled and sloughing. The thought of it made me want to gag.

"She'll probably pick something milder for Eric, though," Hadley amended. "If he had made her that angry, I would have heard about it."

I stared at my cousin perched next to me on the edge of the sofa. We had always been opposites. She was dark and svelte where I was blond and buxom. She had been popular—a cheerleader, homecoming queen, the girl all the guys wanted—while I was the crazy outsider. I hadn't seen her since she ran off after high school, but even though she was now a vamp and unaging, I could tell the human years between had been hard ones. Her mouth and eyes were held in firm lines, skeptical of everything and ready for bitter words and sarcasm. Added to that was the sharp brilliance of vampirism. The difference between the young, backwater rebel that left Bon Temps and this worldly creature was like the difference between a pebble smoothed by the ocean and a cut and polished stone.

I wondered if she would say the same about me.

"You told the Queen about me."

She didn't bother answering. We both knew it was true just like we both knew she wasn't going to apologize for it. Hadley was a lot like Jason in that respect. They didn't intentionally hurt people, but they were self-absorbed to the point of carelessness. Neither every bothered to feel bad about their collateral damage.

"Do you know about your mom? About Gran?"

She looked away. "I heard."

"We were worried about you, Hadley." I said to the side of her face with its heavy eyeliner and dark lipstick. With vampires, makeup was more about dramatics than anything and as a vampire, Hadley was still going for dramatic. Her sheer burgundy blouse and skintight black leather skirt were obviously much more expensive than the old Hadley could afford, but they were the same aesthetic. She had been heavy into the goth scene at the end of high school. Hadely made herself into a vampire stereotype long before she ever became one. "What happened?"

"Things got bad, then they got worse." She shrugged and turned back to me. "I met Sophie-Anne. She gave me a new start," Hadely said with a little sadness. "I've never met anyone like her."

God, I hope not. "She's your maker?"

"Among other things." She gave me a lusty smile, challenging me to say something, but I wasn't going there. Any reservations I had were more due to the fact that I had a hard time imagining anyone sharing a bed with Sophie-Anne and coming out alive than her gender. Though, I suppose that Hadely didn't exactly make it out alive either, did she?

"Bon Temps isn't our life anymore, Sookie. You should remember that." Hadley stood and motioned for me to get up. She looked me over critically as I slowly rose from the sofa. "Let's get some blood in you," she said before striding out of the room in her spike heels, expecting her little cousin to follow.

...

As Hadley led me through the halls, pointing out what the different offices were for and detailing exactly how useless the humans and vampires who worked there were, it became clear that being the Queen's child and honey had given her a big status boost and she was going to ride that wave all the way to the shore. Hadley couldn't have been more than two, still a baby by vampire standards, but everyone we passed was careful to nod to her. Some got their nods returned while others received sneers or eye rolls. She was the only person I had met who could make a nod seem exasperated.

The next youngest vamp we passed as they went about their nightly business had at least fifty years on me and Hadley, and I'm sure my cousin was glad not to be newest girl in town anymore. I suspected she may have taken us the long way to wherever we were going to show me off. More than one of the vamps in business suits stopped outside their doors, files in hand, nostrils flaring as I walked by.

In my still very human oriented mind, "going to get blood" meant we were headed to a kitchen for a bottle of True Blood. I could have kicked myself when my cousin led me into a living room with humans lounging around, chatting and reading on a ring of couches. Hadley closed the pair of double doors behind us, but I could hear a TV going in another room and smell food cooking. Apparently these were the human quarters.

The three women and two men who were on the couches all stopped what they were doing to eagerly watch Hadley and me like puppies whose masters had just returned home.

"This is the Queen's private stock," Hadley said in a bored tone. "They're the only ones that get to live here, so they're more closely monitored than the general donors, not to mention they taste way better." The people on the couches puffed up a little at Hadley's recommendation. "The Queen's given you permission to drink from her stock until you've learned to hunt on your own. Usually, they're reserved for her and her children," Hadley said to me, making sure I understood the favor being shown to me. She smirked. "Trust me, you don't want to drink from the general stock unless you have to. They're the public toilets of donors. Best saved for emergencies."

The Queen's donors snickered at Hadley joke and she shooed them off one of the sofas before motioning me to sit.

Instead of taking a seat, I vamp whispered, "I appreciate the Queen's offer, Hadley. I really do, but I think I'd be more comfortable just having a True Blood, if that's okay."

Hadley stared at me like I had just asked to lick driveway gravel. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," she said and motioned to the couch again. "Sit."

So I took a seat.

"Which one do you want?"

The donor's hearts all sped up with my cousin's question and I looked the five over. All were under forty, good looking, and more than willing to have me drink their blood.

I was the hesitant one, the one that wanted to find a way out of this, to go running from the room. I had avoided drinking from humans so far, but I knew I couldn't do it forever. I was just afraid that once I took that step, I wouldn't be able to stop. Using humans as food was a short slide to treating humans like food—livestock put here for my benefit. I also didn't want to risk that I might kill someone. I don't think I'd ever be the same if that happened.

But the five people in front of me smelled so good and the sound of their blood pumping was mesmerizing. I couldn't deny that I wanted to drink from them, that it was an overwhelming need inside of me.

"I can pick for you if you can't decide. I don't want to be here all night," Hadley offered testily, growing tired with my hesitance.

"Sorry. They just all look so good." I smiled a very fangy version of my Crazy Sookie smile, which I doubted made it look any saner. "I'll take Mr. Panther."

My cousin laughed beside me and beckoned one of the men. He had silky dark hair and narrow cat eyes with a compact, athletic body that looked like it would be right at home running through the jungle. He kneeled on the floor in front of me and he was tall enough that his face was even with mine, giving me an even better look at his golden-green eyes.

"What's your name?"

Hadley snorted at my question as a girl who bore a striking resemblance to herself settled next to her on the couch. She sent the others out with a wave of her hand.

"You can call me Mr. Panther," the man said with the hint of an accent in his soft purr. "I find I quite like it."

Like I needed more temptation.

I went ahead and tuned into his brain. Since I'd be hearing it anyway when I touched him, I didn't want it to startle me.

His thoughts were what I expected. He liked my breasts, he was excited for me to drink from him, hoped we'd have sex and was already imagining what it would be like. He liked blonds. And attached to that preference I saw a flash of something else.

Before I knew what I was doing, I caught that memory and pulled it to the forefront of his mind. A young girl was on her bike, riding in front of him. I could feel the summer sun on his skin, feel the rush of air as they coasted down a hill, see her long blond hair tangle and twist as it streamed behind her. I could feel the love his teenaged-self had for her, Catalina. It was first love—so big and sweet he didn't know what to do with it.

I could feel him trying to let the memory slip away. _No. Focus on it. You won't feel any pain._

I pulled back once I was sure he was doing what I wanted. His face was blissful. I leaned in and sank my fangs into his neck.

His hot blood gushed into my mouth and I clutched him tight, sucking hard on the wounds, desperate to draw more out. I could feel the life in it—that little spark of magic that keeps humans' hearts beating—flowing into me. It was powerful and consuming.

As I felt myself slipping into that bloodlust, I used Mr. Panther's memory to anchor me. It was such an innocent memory, such a contrast to what I was feeling that it helped me remember what I really had under my hands, why I couldn't just let go.

I licked Mr. Panther's neck and pulled away. He was still out of it, focused on his memory. _You can let go now. _

His dark eyelashes fluttered and he looked around like someone waking from a dream. Hadley had taken her meal to another room and was doing things I had no desire to hear my cousin doing. Ugh, vamp hearing.

Mr. Panther lightly touched the two new little punctures that had been added to his collection.

I put my mouth close to his ear. "What happened to the girl? Catalina?"

"Hit by a bus, riding her bike," he answered softly.

I slipped back inside his head and tried to impress on his memory that his time with me was just the normal lusty, gropey vamp feeding. Well, maybe I made it a little better than normal. I knew it took when a big, cat grin spread across his face.

He kissed my hand. "Come back and see me anytime."

...

After Hadley finished, we left the Queen's compound and walked to a row of clothing boutiques in the French Quarter that kept vampire hours. Sophie-Anne had instructed her to purchase me a new wardrobe, an order I wasn't really happy with. I already had clothes at my house and then all the ones Eric had bought for me. Having three complete sets of clothing was wasteful. Not to mention the stores we went to catered more to Hadley's tastes than mine.

If I had any questions about where Hadley's allegiance lay these days, it was quickly cleared up by the questions she slipped into conversation as we looked through the cocktail dresses at Mouton Rouge.

"So did you pass out when you teleported before?"

Thank goodness vampire hearts don't beat.

I forced out a laugh. "Teleport? I wish."

"Didn't you know?" Her dark brows arched. "One moment you were sitting in front of the Queen and then you weren't. Sophie-Anne had to send out a search party. They found you in your room, unconscious."

I narrowed my eyes at my cousin. "You're pulling my leg. I woke up with you on the same sofa I blacked out on." I paused. "Though I was wondering how I cut my head."

"Pam thought you hit your head. She brought you back." Hadley pulled out a black strapless dress with a handkerchief bottom and held it up for inspection. "You're a teleporter."

I shook my head at the dress and snorted. "Lot of good it does if I can't even stay conscious."

Hadley let the subject drop as her attention was drawn back to the clothing.

By the time we finished, Hadley had bought twice what I had. She promised to find someone to take me shopping whose taste was closer to my own.

We went back to her apartment, a gorgeous L shaped place full of French doors and faux antique, spindly legged furniture. I was to stay in Hadley's guest bedroom, which Hadley promised to clean out to make more room for my stuff. I hoped I wouldn't be standing long enough for that to be necessary. As much as I liked seeing my long lost cousin, I wanted to go home.

Hadley told me that the Queen would be assigning me a vampire mentor, someone to teach me the vampire ways and try to develop my abilities while Eric was out of commission. I didn't think much of it until the next evening when there was a knock at the door. Hadley was in her bathroom, drying her hair, so I answered.

I opened the door and froze, shocked by the familiar pale face that looked back at me.

"Hello, sweetheart."

...

* * *

A/N: Oh, dear. What shall happen?

I just wanted to thank everyone for the comments and birthday wishes. They made my day!


	9. Your ExLover Is Dead

**Chapter 9: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead**

_I chose to feel it and you couldn't choose  
I'll write you a postcard, I'll send you the news  
From the house down the road, from real love_

_Live through this and you won't look back_

_There's one thing I have to say so I'll be brave  
You were what I wanted  
I gave what I gave  
I'm not sorry I met you  
I'm not sorry it's over  
I'm not sorry there's nothing to save_

Your Ex-Lover Is Dead - Stars

VVVVV

And there was Bill, standing outside my door in a nylon jacket, his button down shirt tucked into his slacks. His hair was combed, his loafers were shined, and those cool dark eyes were aimed at me.

A frown creased his forehead. "Sookie-"

I slammed the door in his face.

As much as I wanted to throw myself over that threshold and pummel Bill until I could feel his bones crack and grind under his skin like broken china—a plan of action my vampire instincts were very supportive of—I wanted him gone even more.

To put it simply: I was tired of Bill Compton. I was tired of thinking about him, tired of being angry at him, and I was weary down to my knickers of crying because of him.

He took my old life. I wasn't about to give him this one.

Unfortunately, my resolve to never see him again didn't remove his void from the other side of our door. It also didn't keep Hadley's phone from ringing in the other room.

I was drinking a blood in the kitchen when she swept in, dressed for the night with her long dark hair floating behind her.

Hadley stopped in front of me, tapping her cell against her fingers.

"Is there a reason you won't let Bill in or does your melodrama have to hold up everyone's night just for shits and giggles?"

I made Hadley wait for my answer, as I took a long sip. Hadley hated waiting.

"How about you tell me why he's here."

My cousin crossed her arms. "Bill's here because Sophie-Anne told him to be here. He's supposed to work with you on that whole teleporting thing." Her eyes narrowed. "Which you would have known if you had bothered opening the door."

So Bill didn't even come here because he wanted to talk. He came because he was ordered to.

That hurt me more than it should have.

"I can't do it. I can't be around him."

Hadley plunked her bag down. "Too bad you don't get a choice." She pulled the last bottle of True Blood out of her otherwise empty fridge and popped it in the microwave. "Look, I know you probably want to rip his eyes out and use his bleeding skull as a planter, but he knows more about your gifts than anyone."

Way to poke a sore spot Hadley. Like I couldn't remember all those times he had encouraged me to work on my telepathy in the guise of the supportive boyfriend. "He knew about the mind reading. Which I don't do anymore."

"Whatever." Hadley waved a dismissive hand at me. "He knows you." She got her blood out and took a drink. It left a faint red points at the corners of her mouth. "Besides, Sophie-Anne's gotten someone else to do your Vamp 101, so you only have to see him for an hour or two. And if he screws up, she'll probably even let you torture him. Bill's not really one of her favorite people right now."

I snorted and Hadley glared at me. Sophie-Anne couldn't be that unhappy with him if he was out moping around instead of being punished. Heck, if anything it felt like she was punishing me, and there wasn't much I could do about it.

I don't know why I thought my Bill-voidance plan would work. The Queen didn't seem to hold much regard for other people's feelings, especially when they stood in the way of something she wanted. Somehow, I thought the whole killing me debacle had earned me some sort of Bill reprieve. It was a kick in the pants to learn that even with dead, the Queen had him sticking to me like a chigger. No matter what I did, I couldn't get away.

Maybe I could at least get something out of it.

"If I have to put up with Bill, I want to be able to see Eric." I lifted my chin. On our shopping trip last night, I had asked her about Eric. She laughed and changed the subject. Not a good sign.

Hadley eyed me. "You need to let go of that. He's gone until the Sophie-Anne says he's not."

So they expected me to hang out with Bill, business as usual, while God-knows-what was being done to my maker. Eric might not be my favorite person at the moment, but it was hard to do nothing while he was being tortured. I had to keep repeating Pam's instructions in my head. The best chance Eric had was proving us as loyal non-threats as quickly as possible. If that meant playing nice with Bill, I'd just have to put on my big girl panties and do it.

I must have looked forlorn as I felt, because my cousin reached over and tucked my hair back. It was the softest gesture I'd seen her make as a vamp. In it I could see the ghost of the Hadley who baked pies with me and Gran for the church shut-ins and helped me dress my dolls. It was nice to know that there was still some of the old Hadley left.

"If it's any consolation, you wouldn't have been able to avoid Bill for long anyway. Not with you both at court." She gave herself a moment of reflection before she wiped her mouth and retrieved her purse.

"I've got to go. Business with the Queen." Hadley shot me a saucy smile and strode to the door. When she passed by Bill on her way out, she paused and leaned in, "You're on my shit list, dick-for-brains. Don't piss off my cousin anymore than you already have."

She waved at me over her shoulder as she left.

I took a seat in the living room, while Bill stood in the doorway. I waited long enough to make sure he wasn't willing to just go away before speaking.

"So what are you going to teach me? I didn't think you knew how to teleport, unless you were keeping that from me too."

He entered the room, approaching me now that I'd acknowledged his presence. "Sookie-"

"Shut up, Bill."

Bill stopped in his tracks, his face tightening. His lips were pressed into a straight line, his eyes intent on me. "No. I need to tell you this. What happened in Jackson—"

I buried my head in my hands and screamed. "_Bill!_"

He was frozen when I looked up. I don't know how I did it, but I could feel I had more than just Bill's attention. I had a hold on his mind.

It was odd, feeling the dark well of Bill's consciousness layered underneath my own. Then I realized why this was familiar.

Pam and the poisoned fangbanger.

She hadn't heard me. I had ordered her to stop.

If I were human, I'd have been shaking right about now. With the cold-sweats and a heart like a humming bird. But with my new vamp body. I might as well have been a mannequin.

This was bad, bad news. The riskiest of business. I had worried about reading vamp minds, but this was even worse. If anyone found out, I'd be ash before I could blink.

I scanned Bill's sullen face. He hadn't been too appreciative of my unlady-like outburst, but other than that there was no sign I was doing anything to him. As much as I hated having this kind of power over someone, if I was being forced to spend time with Bill, it needed to be on my terms.

I rubbed my hands on my thighs and started again.

"Bill," I said much more calmly. "You don't get to talk to me about that, understand? You're here on the Queen's business and you're going to do it. That's all." I pushed my will along with my words and felt him bend to my suggestion. "Answer my questions honestly, but other than that, just be your usual evasive self."

I gave it a moment to take, and after a deep breath, I let go of his mind.

He was back to himself, and I was back to me.

Bill was still standing, appraising me with those dark eyes of his, and for a second I was afraid he was aware of what I had done.

I cleared my throat. "Sit down, Bill. And stop staring at me. It's creepy."

In a long pause that made me glad I didn't have a beating heart, he didn't move. Then just as quickly as I had convinced myself the jig was up, Bill took a seat across from me and started talking.

"Teleportation isn't a vampire talent," he said, settling into one of Hadley's delicate, floral chairs. "I've never heard of another that could."

"And you would know." I had a good idea of what his project for the Queen was. It was a good bet that right now, Bill knew more about the North American vampire population than any other being on the face of the planet.

He nodded. "It's always possible that someone has managed to keep their abilities a secret, but the problem for you remains that we know of no vampire to teach you."

"If it's not a vampire talent, what is it? What else is there?" Both he and Eric hadn't been surprised that teleportation was possible, just that I was doing it.

Bill barely moved but I could tell he was irritated that I was asking questions he didn't want to answer. "Fairy. One of your relatives procreated with a fairy. Most likely a grandparent."

"Seriously?" I had a brief flash of myself dressed like Tinkerbell, which was quickly followed by Eric as Peter Pan. Maybe that's why he could fly?

I wanted to give myself a pinch for that line of thought. If fairies were anything like the other Supes I'd met, they weren't something you wanted to take lightly.

Still, the fact was that all of my family, other than me, seemed completely human. "What about Hadley?"

"Fairy blood but no magic." He looked unsure just how much he should tell me. "From what I've been able to learn, those that turn don't have enough fairy in them to have any magic. You are an anomaly."

Sookie the oddball. Like that was anything new. But if Hadley was part fairy too, that meant it came in on the Stackhouse side. Gran? Dad and Aunt Linda looked too much like her not to be her children, but I couldn't see her ever stepping out on Grandpa Stackhouse. He was her husband and she was Gran.

It just didn't fit.

Bill waited patiently while I digested this new bit of information. It was a habit of his I had always appreciated, but I wanted to get this lesson over. I could think better once he was gone.

"So how are we going to run this? I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I didn't even know I teleported till Hadley told me." That was my story and I was sticking to it.

Bill approached my popping in much the same way he did my telepathy. He had me describe what had happened at the Queen's compound and what it felt like when I popped. It allowed me to get a good dig in about how my lying jerk of an ex-boyfriend had been sent to seduce me. Bill had been annoyed by that but he kept silent.

I ended up trying to clear my head and reach for that feeling that would set my teleport in motion. I briefly considered just faking it, but I had little doubt the Queen would keep me here until I could pop on command. She could probably come up with some pretty gruesome ways to get me upset enough to trigger it. Plus, I wanted to get this skill under control. I didn't want to accidentally end up in one of the Queen's meetings uninvited or worse. Not even being able to control where your body is physically located was a scary prospect.

Unfortunately, deciding I wanted to teleport didn't make it happen. I don't know how long I spent trying to visualize myself popping to Hadley's kitchen, trying to make myself feel the need to be there, doing everything I could to mentally shove myself in that direction while Bill sat across from me and watched.

"I don't think this is happening today." I clenched and flexed my hands. My best efforts had only managed to make me light-headed and tingly-fingered.

"You're hungry."

I nodded, even though it was probably obvious by how much I was fidgeting. "We're out of True Blood too."

Bill unpocketed his phone and placed a call. "We're finished," was all he said and he hung up. I hoped my phone manners never got that bad.

We sat there, across from each other, in the quiet of the room.

"So is this an everyday thing?" I waved a hand between us.

"Nightly, yes. The Queen needs to know what you can do." He shifted in his seat. "Your mentor will be here shortly."

It wasn't long before there was a knock on the door and I jumped out of my seat to get it.

I opened the door to a sturdy male vamp with deeply brown skin and a nose as curved as a rainbow. He had a distinctly Middle Eastern look about him and wore his long, black hair pulled back from his face.

"Sookie Stackhouse?" he asked, eyes glinting with mischief.

I nodded and he swept up my hand, kissing the back of it. He also used the opportunity to take a deep whiff of my scent. He closed his eyes, savoring the smell.

"Lovely." He released my hand and looked me over with a fangy grin. "Has anyone told you that you smell enchantingly of fairy?"

"Rasul," Bill acknowledged the other vampire in a chilly voice from over my shoulder.

"Bill." Rasul nodded, unfazed by the guard dog stance Bill had taken behind me. "I believe you're done for the night?"

I moved aside and raised my eyebrows at Bill.

"Yes." He slipped past me and out the door. "I'll be here tomorrow shortly after dusk, Sookie," he stated, ignoring Rasul. "You may call on me if you need anything."

"That won't be necessary, I'm sure." Mainly because I'd rather eat my own toenails than ask him for something. "Bye, Bill."

I invited Rasul in and closed the door.

VVVVV

I spent the rest of the night with Rasul and I have to say that I liked him. He had a playfulness and sense of humor that Eric and Pam would have appreciated. It also didn't escape my attention that he was quite flirty with me. While I didn't have any plans to hop in bed with him, it was nice to feel desirable after getting the chopped liver treatment with Bill.

That didn't mean I wasn't cautious about what I said to Rasul. He might have been handsome and friendly, but the Queen had sent him.

It wasn't until the end of the night that I found out that he was the closest thing to an ally I had right now.

After spending a few hours at a club answering my new mentor's questions about what I knew so far and having him monitor my dinner, he took me to his car. We drove toward the outskirts of the city to a sparse industrial area of mostly warehouses.

I cut a few glances over to Rasul. If we were both humans, this would be the point where I got ready to claw him with my keys and call 911, but we were vampires. Hanging out in creepy places was part of the species description.

We got out of the car.

"What are we doing here?" I could hear some men loading a truck, but it was distant. There didn't seem to be anyone close by.

"Just stay quiet and follow me," he said and silently crept down the empty sidewalk.

After a few minutes, he stopped at the corner of a building and peeked around it. That was about the time the smell hit me. I clapped a hand over my nose.

Rasul looked back and grinned at me. "We're downwind of a sewage treatment plant. One of the human deterrents," he whispered and then motioned for me to come and see. He pointed to an old brick warehouse on the other side of the street that looked like it was from the 1940s. There were a few trucks parked inside the fenced, concrete yard and one lone light above the door.

There were a few voids inside and two terrified humans. I swallowed hard. What I got from their minds gave me a good idea of what this place was.

I looked to Rasul.

"It's the Queen's dungeon. I thought you might want to see it."

We stayed a while longer, watching the building though no one came or went. Rasul was good enough to stay quiet, even for the drive back.

The two of us were sitting in his darkened car on the street in front of Hadley's apartment when he spoke, still looking straight ahead, "When I was a young vampire, my maker told me to only turn humans that shared more of my good qualities than the bad. She swore that our blood brings the character of the maker out in the child, and in turn, what you share in personality becomes even more pronounced. Both my maker and I were very charming and fantastic in bed, so at least it's true in our case."

He turned to me and I gave him a weak smile.

"Eric is very good at keeping himself and those close to him alive. I am sure you will be too."

We nodded to each before he drove off. Like Bill, I'd see Rasul nightly, whether I wanted to or not.

I dragged myself up to my makeshift room and dropped down on the bed. It was getting close to dawn and I spent the last bit of my night trying not to think about what was going on in a warehouse on the other side of town.

* * *

A/N: Ugh, Bill. I blame him for why it took so long to write this chapter.

Guess who we get to see in the next one, though. A certain big, blond someone, maybe? What do you think his punishment was? Whips? The Rack? Bubble baths in a silver tub? Really tiny underpants full of nargles? Nothing good that's for certain.


	10. Christmas in Prison

**Chapter 10: Christmas in Prison**

_And I dream of her always  
Even when I don't dream  
Her name's on my tongue  
And her blood's in my stream._

_Wait awhile, eternity,  
Old mother nature's got nothing on me  
Come to me, run to me  
Come to me, now  
We're rolling, my sweetheart  
We're flowing  
By God!_

Joshua James (John Prine cover)

I-I-I-I

The popping lessons continued, as awkward as they were, and between my real and contrived limitations, it seemed Bill (and hopefully the Queen) got the idea that it was more of an emergency exit than a reliable mode of transportation. Passing out after every teleport wasn't going to make me Sophie Anne's star assassin anymore than only being able to pop under emotional distress or that so far, I had only popped to places I had been before. With so many drawbacks, I'd be more of a liability than an aid.

Whatever whammy I put on Bill held, but it wasn't a sure thing. There were times when he'd stop what he was saying and his eyes would rest on me. I could feel him pushing against the blocks in his mind. It nearly gave me a panic attack every time, thinking that he'd bust through and realize what I had done. I might as well have been in a boat at the base of a cracking dam. The vamp glamour definitely wasn't something I'd be breaking out again anytime soon.

The later parts of my night passed in a much more pleasant fashion. Rasul continued to do his best to charm me out of my pants, in a very literal sense. It was a tempting offer, or at least it would have been under different circumstances. For one, I was still trying to get a handle on my new vamp form. Physically, going from human to vampire was like going from driving a golf cart to a Ferrari. I wasn't going to rush into anything until I felt like I had control of myself. Not to mention that even with my new vampy impulses, I was never going to be a one night stand kind of girl. Casual sex wasn't something I was interested in, even if that was all I was likely to be offered now.

I didn't know if I could trust him, either. The contrast between agitating Bill and disarming Rasul couldn't have been stronger, and I'd seen enough cop dramas to recognize the bad cop/good cop dynamic. Bill to upset me and Rasul to lean on. The more I thought about why Rasul showed me to the Queen's prison, the more I questioned his motives or if it was even his idea. For all I knew he could have done it under the Queen's suggestion, setting me up for a trap. Maybe they wanted to see if I could use my popping to break in to a place. Maybe they wanted to catch me aiding an 'escape attempt' so they could charge Eric with treason. Maybe Eric wasn't even there.

One thing was for certain: I needed to be careful now more than ever. I wasn't going to put my all my faith in Rasul till I was sure he wasn't a Bill in new clothing.

Over the next few days, Rasul showed me around the city, and with Christmas so close, New Orleans was in a festive mood. The balconies and curling iron work were twined with lights, and carolers and jazz bands set a cheery background for revelers enjoying their holiday in the Big Easy. The holiday season hadn't hampered vamp tourism any. The French Quarter was full of humans, drunk and rosy and looking to get bitten, and more than a few vampires willing to oblige.

It was amazing and a little scary how different all the familiar Christmas trappings were with my vamp senses. I could see the hundreds of little shadows cast by the blazing twinkle lights and smell the cinnamon and cloves being used in the restaurants we passed and the peppermint schnapps on people stumbling out of the bars. It was overwhelming, trying to reconcile all the sights and sounds with my memories.

I'd always loved Christmas. Even if it was just me, Gran, and Jason. Gran always did her best to make it about appreciating the love and family we had, rather than what we were missing. It hurt, knowing that I'd never have another Christmas with Gran and that I'd spend this one alone, virtually a prisoner with my troika of babysitters, while Eric sat in a very real prison.

My nightly rotation of Hadley, Bill, and Rasul kept up until right after sunset on Christmas Eve when Hadley barged into my room. I had just finished dressing, which was lucky. Vamps weren't big on privacy or modesty. She looked over my ensemble and scowled.

For the last few days, my cousin's mood had really been in the toilet, swinging back and forth between surliness and a vacant despondency. She didn't talk about it and I didn't ask. It was clearer than ever that we might be cousins, but we weren't friends.

Hadley thrust a garment bag at me. "Put this on. I'll be back for your hair and makeup." She stomped out, not looking back at me.

"Good evening to you too," I muttered and scowled at the bag, feeling like a four year old. Just how old a vamp did you have to be before you got to pick out your own clothes? Or maybe it was on some points-rewards system.

I unzipped the bag and hung the dress up Hadley had brought me. After a few minutes of gaping at it, I finally talked myself into at least trying the gown on. It was definitely a showstopper. The top half was mostly made of a sheer gold fabric with a pattern of shiny red silk to cover the essential bits. It dropped into a full red silk skirt with a small train. I'm sure from a distance it looked quite elegant. No one would realize until they got up close just how daring it was.

I looked like somebody's Christmas present. Or a giant Christmas tart.

"Are you sure that I have to wear this?" I asked Hadley when she came back in. I made another adjustment to my goods. Definitely no jumping jacks or trampolines for me tonight.

"Sophie-Anne sent it over for you to wear to her Christmas party. So yes, I'm sure," she said acerbically. "Now shut up and sit down so I can do your makeup before the car gets here."

I crossed my arms and stared at her. Whatever was bugging her, didn't have anything to do with me. There was no call to be rude.

"Please." She waved the hair brush in her hand at the chair, looking a little defeated. "I'm supposed to have you ready."

I thanked Hadley and took a seat. It wasn't until Rasul showed up, looking dapper in a dark suit while Hadley was still in a baggy t-shirt, that I figured out why my cousin was so bitter.

"You're not going?" My eyebrows shot up. You'd think being the Queen's honey would put your name at the top of the guest list.

She glared at me. "No. I'm not."

Small wonder she was so upset then, with Sophie-Anne sending me an extra-revealing dress while Hadley got left at home. As far as I knew though, the Queen wasn't interested in me in that way. I had no idea why she'd take a personal interest in getting me all gussied up, but I had a bad feeling about it. A bad, bad feeling.

After managing to arrange myself in Rasul's car without giving him a show, we were on our way. Rasul let me know that the first part of the party was vamps only. The Queen was announcing her marriage to the King of Arkansas.

"But what about Hadley?" Now I had the reason for my cousin's black moods. Hearing the person you love is marrying someone else would put anyone in a funk.

He shrugged. "It's a political alliance more than anything. As long as the Queen's relationship doesn't interfere with the terms of the marriage agreement and your cousin remembers her place, there shouldn't be a problem."

"So Hadley gets to clap and smile at the wedding while the Queen decides how and when they continue their…" I waved my hand, "whatever."

"Vamps aren't big on the clapping and smiling bit, but yes. That's the general idea," Rasul teased. "It's not an equal match, your cousin and the Queen. It never will be."

Rasul looked over at me through his dark lashes as he pulled to a stop in front of an old monastery decked in wreathes and lights. "We'd make a fantastic match, though." His eyes shone. "You'd never regret it."

"Promises, promises." I sighed dramatically. "I'm sure you'd forget me in a minute."

A smile spread across his face and he came around the car to get my door. Usually I don't care for that sort of thing, but between my dress and the sky-high gold heels that came with it, I needed all the help I could get.

"Ah, but I could never forget you, dear Sookie," he said once he had me on the curb, my arm tucked into his. He leaned in close, taking a deep whiff of my neck. "Especially with that enchanting scent you have."

I rolled my eyes and returned his grin. "You really know how to compliment a lady." I had to admit, he smelled pretty darn good too.

He patted my hand. "Just one of your many alluring traits."

The inside of the monastery was decorated much like the outside with the addition of a giant tree, a canopy of crystalline snowflakes, and the sharp smell of evergreen. There was already a crowd of a hundred or so vampires gathered and it was clear by each person's outfit whether they were planning to stay for the party. No one else was in the building though the bandstand and buffet tables were already set up for when the humans arrived.

The Queen entered with Andre, Sigbert, and Wybert in tow not to long after our arrival. Sophie-Anne mounted the front stage in a beautiful deep green velvet gown and the assembled vamps quieted down. Let me tell you, no one does motionless and silent like a room full of vampires.

Like Rasul said, the Queen announced her upcoming nuptials to the King of Arkansas and briefly went over the terms of the contract and what would be expected of the Louisiana vampires. From the lack of reaction, I guess it must have been a pretty standard arrangement or at least one the Louisiana vamps didn't have an objection to. When she was finished she dismissed the non-party guest and dismounted the small stage with her entourage.

It didn't take her long at all to find me.

"Sookie." She slipped her arm through mine, barely slowing down. "Come with me."

Sophie-Anne led me to a bedroom off the main room. Sigbert and Wybert stayed outside and Andre waved Rasul away before closing the doors.

The Queen gracefully took a seat on a padded bench at the end of the giant bed and Andre took up his station next to her. I stood in front of them as they both looked me over like butchers accessing a new knife.

"There will be a human at the party tonight named Jonas Crandle. I would very much like you to make his acquaintance." The Queen watched me carefully as I did my best to remain impassive. I didn't like where this was going. Not at all.

"He's part of the Arkansas contingent that drafted our marriage covenant. I need you to find out what information he is taking back to the King, as discretely as possible."

Spying on your husband seemed like a bad way to start a marriage, though I suspect it was somewhat expected in vampire monarchs. The real question was why they wanted me to do it, so I asked just that.

"We need someone unassuming and Crandle favors blondes," Andre answered. "Act dim."

After all my worries about hiding my powers and the Queen was putting me to work as a blond bimbo. I guess she was determined to make me useful.

"This room will be available for your use," the Queen said, glancing back at the bed. "Make sure no one can confirm the use of glamour. You'll have to provide another, more convincing reason for his absence."

It took me a second to catch the implication. There were really only four things a vampire would ever want from a human: information, specialty services, blood, or sex. If I didn't want the Arkansas vamps thinking I was after the first two, Bimbo Sookie would have to go after the other two.

Sophie-Anne really needed to learn some new tricks.

Unfortunately, as unpalatable as the mission was, this could be exactly the opportunity I had been waiting for.

"I'm afraid I have to refuse your request, your Majesty." I stiffened my back and stood up straight. If I was going to deny a Queen, I might as well look confident while doing it.

Sophie-Anne's finely plucked eye-brows arched. "And why do you think you have option of refusing?"

"With all due respect, your Majesty, my master didn't order it." I clasped my hands behind my back. "I just don't really see how this would help him."

The tension in the room was a solid thing as both Andre and the Queen stared me down. I was playing a big hand here, and Sophie-Anne seemed to be counting on my youth and ignorance to bully me into doing what she wanted. The fact was, though, that the only person I owed loyalty to was Eric.

I had made Rasul go over this point of vampire law several times and the jist of it was that until a new vampire struck out on her own, she belonged entirely to her maker. So while Eric was sworn to Sophie-Anne, I only owed fealty through him. He was responsible to the Queen for my behavior and discipline, and in turn, any request for my services had to go through him. Technically, as long as Eric stayed undead and I wasn't making trouble, the Queen couldn't make me do a damn thing.

Of course, that was technically. Realistically, I was pretty sure that Sophie-Anne could make me do whatever she wanted. I was depending on her reputation as a fair monarch that I had heard from more than a few of her subjects. Also, I had picked up that vampires were very sensitive about people messing with their children. A Queen that was known for usurping gifted children wouldn't have loyal subjects for very long.

"You're very well informed for one so young. And brave." Sophie-Anne finally said, making it sound not so much like a compliment. She relaxed back on her seat. "What would make this assignment important to your maker?"

"I'm sure he'd be interested in his freedom."

"No." The Queen's brown eyes were hard. "His mistakes were serious ones. I can't let him go so early."

Darn. And that was all I really wanted for Christmas.

I thought for a moment, trying to come up with something else I could ask for. "If you won't release Eric, I'd like to return to Shreveport and help Pam look after my maker's interests." That sounded like a dutiful child, and I'd get to go home and away from the Queen's scrutiny. "I'd also like to know the end date for my maker's punishment, if that's possible."

"Tell Andre what you discover by the end of the night and you can return to Shreveport at first dark tomorrow." Sophie-Anne rose and straightened her dress. "You'll be informed of an approximate date for your maker's release before you leave the city."

I bowed as the Queen swept out of the room, and then followed her and Andre out.

I-I-I-I

The party was just getting into that boisterous, warmly buzzed stage as the humans started in on their second or third drinks and got up the courage to dance, when the Arkansas delegation arrived. Rasul, who was playing my wingman, pointed Crandle out.

"He's not bad looking, but he's no Rasul," he joked, as we paused at the edge of the dance floor. Jonas Crandle wasn't hard to spot. He wasn't the only human in their group, but he was the only one wearing his suit like it was a license to smooze.

And he was handsome—in an All-American, Boy Scout sort of way. He had the kind of face companies love to put on their promotional materials with his naturally white teeth and neatly parted hair. I bet he never had any trouble figuring out which way was north either.

Rasul and I kept an eye on him as we danced and mingled with the other vampires from court. It didn't take long to pick up that Mr. Crandle was sticking close to the Arkansas vamps. He was never alone, so unless I wanted to walk up and try to whammy him under their noses, I was going to need some help.

"Do you think you can distract the vamp with Crandle?"

"The watchman? Of course," Rasul scoffed. "But someone will come looking for him eventually. Make sure he has a good excuse for being gone." He gave me a meaningful look.

Yeah, I got the hint.

Rasul led us over and introduced himself to Jeremiah, the Arkansas vamp, completely ignoring Crandle. A broad, practiced smile stayed on Crandle's face, and I could read all the annoyance swirling around in his brain. He was too smart and successful to be treated like a servant. I nearly snorted. Jonas obviously hadn't been around vamps for too long.

"Sorry about him. Most vampires have terrible manners." I gave him an apologetic smile. "I'm Sookie."

I stuck my hand out for Crandle to shake. Rasul quickly reached over and pushed it back down.

"No touching." He shook his head and turned to Jeremiah. "I don't know how many times I've told her that. Young ones these days." He rolled his eyes.

Jeremiah joined in the head shaking, his bushy beard bobbing. Rasul's little reprimand was all it took to get the other vamp to join in a conversation about how undisciplined and soft post-Revelation vamps were, once again ignoring me and the human.

Crandle sniffed at their dismissal of him and turned back to me. "Well, I think it's lovely to meet you, Sookie, and I'm sure you'll get a hang of the nodding thing in no time," he said formally. "I'm Jonas Crandle. I work for the vampires of Arkansas." He nodded.

I returned it and beamed at him like he was my own personal knight in shining armor. "So what is it you do for the Arkansas vampires? Or can I ask that?"

I listened as Jonas's thoughts told me a very different story than his mouth. It was a good thing I was playing dumb, because even with my improved telepathy, it was a chore to keep the two sources of information straight. Jonas was only too happy to keep talking about himself, while I smiled and nodded along, occasionally throwing in a compliment.

Andre wasn't kidding about Crandle having a thing for blonds. Jonas loved my hair. He was also under the impression that he'd be living in New Orleans once the King took Louisiana and wondered if I'd still be around to date. By the end of our conversation he'd developed a fantasy with me as the adoring housewife, greeting him at the door in high heels and a belted dress when he got home from work. It was just like a 50's sitcom but with fewer cheesy laugh tracks and more torrid sex on the living room furniture.

Needless to say, with all that going on in his head it didn't take much to convince him to move somewhere more private. The Arkansas vamps had told Crandle not to go off with anyone, but he thought that I was a non-threat, I was so young and clueless. In his mind, there wasn't any doubt that he could handle me.

Oh, Jonas Crandle. You have so much to learn about vampires.

Jeremiah had stopped glancing over at Crandle and was deep in conversation with Rasul about growing night gardens. After checking to make sure the other Arkansas vamps weren't watching, I took Crandle's hand and led him through the clumps of party guests.

Pruney Waldo was hanging around next to the big double doors of the Queen's suite, playing guard. He gave me a nod, his face as sour as ever. Waldo looked terrible in formal wear, his bleached face and hair blending with the crisp white of his shirt. If he was guaranteeing my privacy, I had nothing to worry about. No one would want to come near him.

I opened the door and Crandle pressed in close behind me. "Are you sure it's okay to we go in there?" he whispered in my ear.

I wanted to roll my eyes. He was afraid of being caught in the wrong room but not of being alone with a hungry, untamed baby vamp.

Was I ever this clueless? Maybe I should write a book for the humans. _Sookie Stackhouse's Guide to Surviving Vampire Employment_. "Step 1: Quit and move to Montana. Vampires hate Montana. It's the fly fishing. Step 2: Take up fly fishing."

Maybe it'd be better coming from someone who'd actually survived vampire employment.

I bet Bill loved fly fishing.

"Don't worry." I gave Crandle my best saucy smirk. "They're not using it tonight. It's all us." I snatched up his skinny black tie and pulled him in behind me.

As soon as we were inside, his arms encircled me, his fingers brushing down my bare back.

_I've never had sex with a corpse before._

His dark amusement drifted into my mind and I shoved him away from me. His eyes were wide with surprise, looking at me. That's all it took to pull him under my glamour.

"Sit on the bed and stay quiet."

He took a seat on the edge of the massive bed as I tried to gather myself. His thought had thrown me. Not because of its kinky sexual nature—Lord knows I was used to that—but because of how un-alive I was in his mind.

I mean, intellectually, I knew I was dead. My heart didn't beat. I didn't sweat, fart, or fog up car windows, and I could sit under the water in my bathtub like Scuba Steve. But still, every night I got out of bed, showered, dressed, laughed, and worried. You're not alive, but you keep going like you are. You can't fully understand that dissidence, that change in something so fundamental to your understanding of yourself, until it happens to you.

I guess I just wasn't used to it yet, having spent most of my time as a vamp around donors and other vampires. There were probably some FotS zealots who'd be happy to remind me just how inhuman I was.

No more pity party for me, though. I had a job to do if I wanted to get out of here.

"Jonas." He looked up at me as I stood in front of him. "I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to whisper the answers to me. Understand?" Between the noisy party outside and Waldo's discreet distance from the door, I didn't think he'd be able to hear our conversation in here, but there was no point in chancing it.

Jonas nodded.

"Good boy."

It didn't take me long to run through my list of questions. Mostly, I was just filling in gaps since I already had a good idea about what Crandle had been up to from reading his mind during our previous conversation. Seven minutes was all I really needed.

However, seven minutes wasn't nearly enough time for a normal vampire to glamour that much info out of Crandle. I'd need to stay in here at least half an hour if I didn't want the Queen and crew getting suspicious.

Half an hour also meant I'd have to do more than biting if I wanted my cover story believable. Half an hour meant sex.

Pretend sex, that is. No way was I actually getting intimate with Crandle.

Skin to skin contact would be fine for a passing sniff, but if one of the Arkansas vamps really wanted proof, there'd need to be (ugh) fluids.

Waldo's raised voice right outside our door interrupted my pondering giving Crandle some happy time with himself. "Jennifer. How is Little Rock this time of year?"

Shoot. My fingers flew at vamp speed as I shoved off his jacket, loosened his tie, and unbuttoned his shirt. "Listen, Jonas. We've been making out, hot and heavy, since we came in here. You're very aroused and you can't wait for me to bite you." I shoved the images and feelings into his mind: us kissing against the door, me leading him to the bed, my breasts pressing against his chest and fangs scraping his throat.

I hiked up my skirt and straddled his lap before letting the glamour go.

"Sookie." One of his hands wandered up my tight to squeeze my ass while the other went straight to my boob. I sank my fangs in his neck right as I heard the door opening.

I barely got in two gulps before I was yanked off Jonas.

"What do you think you're doing?" the vampiress hissed at me, holding me off the ground by the scruff of my neck and shaking me like a naughty puppy.

"Put her down!"

"Shut up!" she snapped at Crandle. "Waldo, get her Majesty. I have an issue that needs her immediate attention."

Waldo skittered out of the room and if I thought Jennifer was going to put me back down, I was seriously wrong. She held me suspended above the ground, while Crandle pressed his tie to the bleeding punctures on his vein and answered her volley of questions about what had happened between us.

I knew she was checking for signs of glamour, but my glamour was good. Really, _really_ good.

"Your Majesty," Jennifer addressed Sophie-Anne as soon as the Queen entered the room, Waldo closing the doors behind her and Andre. "I caught this fledgling," she gave me a shake, "feeding off one of our humans without permission. I'd like her maker to be named and request that you to authorize punishment, since this is an interstate offence."

The Queen looked over at Crandle and then back to the angry Arkansan. "Has the human been damaged?"

"No."

"Was he coerced in public?"

"No. He was willing," Jennifer admitted grudgingly, casting dark looks over at her human. "Get out," she told Crandle. "And if you leave Jeremiah's side again, I'll drain you dry and dump the carcass in an alleyway."

Jonas didn't need any more persuasion than that. He scrabbled up his clothes, tripping over himself in his hurry to get out of the room.

Once he was gone Jennifer dropped me to the floor.

"Miss Stackhouse is currently in my care. What punishment would you recommend, Ms. Cater?" the Queen asked as I squatted on the ground, rubbing my neck. I didn't think I could even speak yet.

"Is this her first punishment?"

"She's not much more than a week old, so it seems likely." Sophie-Anne looked down at me. "I would say she acted more out of ignorance than insult."

Ignorance, my flammable, pale butt cheeks. I kept my eyes down and tried to appear contrite. Sophie-Anne wasn't going to step in for me here. I'd have to take the punishment so Arkansas wouldn't suspect what the Queen was really up to. This was why she was so willing to bargain with me. She needed a carrot to keep me compliant when I was caught.

This was exactly why you couldn't hang out with 1,000 year old vampires and think you'd come out ahead.

"My maker always used to say that first offenses should be the most memorable." Her face took on a nostalgic cast as she considered her choices. "She needs be whipped, of course, and forbidden from drinking from humans for however long you see fit. There should be something longer lasting too. Losing a hand, perhaps, for touching something that wasn't hers. That would stick with her."

The Queen gave it a moment of quiet deliberation. "That seems acceptable. Waldo?"

The wrinkly vampire nodded to the Queen and pulled a small end table to the center of the room before grabbing me by the arm and dragging me across the floor.

He dumped me by it like a sack of trash. "Strip," he commanded and walked off.

"You'll need to take that dress off if you don't want blood on it," The Queen recommended when I didn't move. She and Andre took up their old positions on the seat at the end of the bed and Jennifer Cater maneuvered to a respectful distance from Sophie-Anne while ensuring a good view of the impending show. "Cloth feels very bad against open wounds."

I took in the two women in front of me in their gowns and holiday finery, their neatly groomed hair and makeup perfect, along with rustic opulence of this converted monastery room. It was so surreal, the contrast between the polite sophistication of my surroundings and what was about to happen.

I peeled off the gown and kicked it to the side, followed shortly by my shoes.

I was left in nothing but a pair of red, lacy panties in front of the Queen. She and Andre didn't give me much of a reaction, but Jennifer Cater had no qualms about eyeing me up and down.

"I bet she was turned by a man," she scoffed. "Even undead they find a way to keep the trash with the biggest tits around."

The Queen made a non-committal noise.

Waldo came out of one of the side rooms with a small bundle under his arm, a whip wound loosely around his neck. He laid a piece of wood over the table top and pushed me down to my knees.

"Any preferences on the hand, your Majesty?" He unwrapped a blade that was somewhere between a cleaver and an ax and gave it an experimental swish near my head. I gritted my teeth and tried not to flinch.

"Sookie?"

I looked down at my hands studying the tiny creases and folds. Even knowing it would grow back, it felt so wrong to pick. But the practical side, which seemed to be getting more and more face time since turning vampire, knew I didn't have a lot of options here. I might as well come out of this being able to write legibly.

"The left."

Waldo snatched up my left hand and held it down on his makeshift block. The tingly beginning of a teleport built within me and I pushed it back. The last thing I needed was all of Arkansas hearing about the magic, disappearing vamp.

Waldo rested the sharp edge of the blade on my wrist and slowly pulled it back.

I closed my eyes and turned away.

I think I screamed when he took off my hand, though with that pain—that incredible shock—I don't think I could say for sure.

If I thought I was going to get any recovery time between punishments, I was sorely mistaken. I was still trying to make sense of the hand I could no longer feel sitting detached on the block in front of me when a white-hot lash cut across my back.

I clung to the little table, biting deep into my left arm at that muscle right below the elbow. I don't know if Waldo was working toward a magic number or if he was just supposed to keep going until there was more blood than skin. Either way, I spent enough time hoping that each strike would be the last that when he did stop, it felt like a trick. I kept my ridged position, waiting for Waldo to come back and start again.

"Ms. Stackhouse."

I opened one eye and then the other before getting my rusty neck to turn up toward Andre. From my head I could tell that everyone was gone except for Andre in his pristine tux.

I wondered if manboy had a hard time finding formal wear. Maybe he had to shop in the Prom section.

"I believe you have something to tell me."

And I did. Wasn't that what all of this was about? Getting the Queen her precious information so I could go home? So I told Andre all about it, hitting the highlights of what I'd gotten from Crandle since my supposed time with him had been limited.

The basics were that Jonas Crandle was more of a forensic accountant than a day man. He'd managed to find a few things that the Queen had been less than up front about with her future husband. In addition to that, Crandle had also been setting up business contacts in New Orleans for King Threadgill. Jonas was under contract to move down to New Orleans by April.

"Are you sure it was April?"

"I'm sure." I replied flatly. I really didn't care enough either way to make it up.

"Excellent." Andre's eyes were blazing. I guess nothing got undead blood moving like a hostile takeover. I almost expected him to start rubbing his hands together in self-satisfied anticipation. His gaze settled on me. "It is a shame you are going back Shreveport. You have been most useful."

Andre focused on me like a charmed snake. "Once you leave your maker, the Queen would be glad to have you in her service."

I grimaced. Sophie-Anne's appreciation for good service was all over my back. I'd be glad to move without wincing. "I'll take that under consideration." When hell freezes over. "But I still get to return to Shreveport, right? And what about Eric?"

"A car will take you back at first dark tomorrow." He peered over at my ravaged back and down to my scabbing, stumpy wrist, evaluating the work with a clinical eye.

"And Eric?"

"The Sheriff will back in his Area in time to look presentable for Her Majesty's wedding." He smiled. "We'll expect to see you there."

Andre walked out then, and I clung to that little table, mostly naked and in pain.

I-I-I-I

Needless to say, as soon as my wounds stopped bleeding, I was only too happy to ditch the rest of the Christmas party. After cleaning up in the suite's bathroom, I managed to find some loose clothing in one of the closets to pull over my tender, healing skin. One handed, which I suspected would be a common theme in the next few months. I left the stupid dress the Queen had given me right on the floor where I had kicked it.

The Queen's chamber had its own exit, and I snuck out of the monastery without having to talk to anybody.

Trudging through the chill streets of the Garden District, it didn't take me long to decide what I really wanted to do tonight.

I found an open gas station and glamoured a man to give me enough cash to buy some True Blood and his address so I could pay him back. I downed a bottle right there in the parking lot, trying to make up for some of what I'd lost.

So far, the vamps had been keeping me from getting to my own money while I was down here, instead making me go to Rasul or Hadley if I needed anything. The cards they were using to pay for everything though were courtesy of Eric via Pam. Apparently, even if the Queen demanded to babysit me, Eric still had to pay the bill.

It was ridiculous. I was a grown-ass woman having to beg for Daddy's credit card when I just wanted to go home and back to work.

I gathered up the rest of my True Bloods and ran back to the drab warehouse Rasul had showed me a week ago.

Not much had changed. It still had the same empty lot, the same dim lighting, and the same foul smell.

I checked the brains in the building, concentrating on the voids. There were three vampires tonight—two moving around and one not at all. Since I figured Eric would probably be restrained, the motionless one got my attention.

As much as I didn't like it, I knew what I had to do. If I wanted to know if it was really Eric, I needed to go into his mind.

So that's what I did. After a deep breath, I sunk down into that void, down into a cold, snaky pit.

But it was a familiar snaky pit. It was Eric's snaky pit, writhing and restless from a current of discomfort and pain that overshadow most everything else. I focused on his mind and let the tingles of a pop rise up through my chest and down to my fingers and toes. I'd never been able to teleport to a place I hadn't been before, but I hoped with Eric's mind to act as an anchor that I could do it.

I held my pack of True Bloods tight, and I popped.

I landed right next to Eric's head and for the first time in my unlife, got to see a vampire jerk in surprise. His dilated eyes darted over me and he inhaled, taking in my scent. It was like startling an injured animal, he was so raw.

"It's me," I murmured. "It's really me." I brushed my thumb against his cheek and after some calm stroking, he relaxed as much as he could.

They hadn't been kind that was for sure.

Eric was naked and on his back, chained to a giant metal breaking wheel raised off the ground on an axel like a Lazy Susan.

They'd turned him into a giant pin cushion. Hundreds of long, thin needles had been pushed into him—silver needles from the angry, irritated welts at the base of each one. He was so bristled he looked like a giant hair brush.

Other things must have been done to him too from the trails where his blood had drained across the concrete floor. The smell of it permeated the room and my fangs were out from the high I was getting. His skin was covered in dried blood, and puckered, damaged flesh. The needles were just a resting state.

Eric's head was mercifully clear of those silver pins, but I was still careful as I pulled a strip of duct tape off his lips.

"What is that?" I pulled back his cracked lips. A silver ball the size of a jumbo jaw breaker had been shoved in his mouth, and it gleamed between his teeth in the harsh light.

They'd pulled his fangs out too.

There wasn't a lot to the room we were in. It was basically a big concrete box with a drain in the floor, a few hooks on the walls, and obnoxiously bright florescent lights. Other than the wheel Eric was on, the only other thing in the room was a work bench with half a hardware store arranged on its surface. That's where I found a pair of leather gloves.

If you've never tried to put on a glove one-handed, I'll tell you now it ain't easy. I was lucky the glove was made for a larger hand, and between a lot of wriggling and my teeth I managed to get it on.

I held a towel in front of my stubby wrist as I walked back to Eric. I had been doing my best to keep it out of his view, as if he'd even notice in his current state. Still, I didn't want to chance it.

"Open wide," I said and pulled the ball out of Eric's mouth, along with what must have been a bit of his tongue and the roof of his mouth, fused to the silver.

I put that evil ball back on the table while Eric made hacking noises, trying to get used to his burnt and blistered mouth.

His eyes lingered on my neck when I came back to him.

"I brought True Blood."

His eyes stayed on my neck.

"You want my blood."

He kept staring and I frowned.

The uses for vampire blood had been covered my Vamp 101, and I can't say I was thrilled to find out a few of its long term uses that Bill and Eric had conveniently neglected to tell me. Namely, how much influence a vampire could have over a human after they take vampire blood. With my odd heritage and telepathy, maybe I couldn't be manipulated as easily as other humans, but it did make me wonder about their motives. Neither Bill nor Eric had any qualms about giving me blood when vamps are usually so sparing with it.

I might have reaped some outstanding benefits, but at the price of free will, I wasn't sure it was much of a gain. Just like everything in human/vampire relations, it wasn't the human coming out on top.

Things were different now that I was a vampire. As my maker, Eric already had as much power as one vampire could get over another, but I couldn't help being a little balky. Especially since there was a portion of me (a portion that felt very unlike me) that immediately wanted to rip open a vein and coo over Eric as he fed. He might not be able to command me like a regular child, but it didn't change the fact that he essentially owned a part of me.

I sighed. "Fine. It's basically your blood anyway." I crunched into my wrist and stuck it in front of him.

His lips closed around the wound and his tongue and teeth went to work as he greedily sucked. I remembered all too well how worked up Eric had gotten when I had last taken his blood, and now that he was returning the favor, I really understood what all the fuss was about.

With each of his swallows I could feel my blood spreading through his body, repairing his carved up tissues like hundreds of scurrying ants. Even more than that, it was like the blood was being pulled straight up through my hoo-ha, electrifying every nerve on its way to my wrist.

I squirmed and moaned as I watched Eric's eyes become more lucid, watching me as a warm tightness built low in my belly. With a sharp bite from his blunt teeth, I came in a blinding wave of euphoria.

I plunked down hard on the ground, dazed and giddy from my release, my whole body saturated with satisfaction. And I hadn't even actually had sex! I was grinning like a loon there on the floor and as soon as my muscles felt solid again, I stood up.

That's when I kissed the crap out of Eric Northman.

From previous experience I knew that Eric was a master of the art of kissing, and even with a belly full of silver and the weird upside-down, hunched over angle we were working with, he still made a valiant attempt to respond.

It wasn't until I bumped his arm as I practically tried to climb on top of him that he let out an unhappy groan and I came to my senses. I pulled away and stepped back from the big wheel he was on, savoring the last taste of his kisses and my own blood on my tongue.

"I really shouldn't have done that."

Eric closed his eyes and let his head drop back, his features drawn with pain. "There are worse things than kissing me."

I raised a hand to my puffy lips. There certainly were, but I wasn't going to have this discussion while hanging out in the Queen's dungeon. "Sophie-Anne's getting married. To Arkansas. You're supposed to be out in time to attend."

Eric didn't say anything for long enough that I wondered for a second if he had drifted into down time. "That's why she has been so lenient with me."

"Turning you into a reverse hedgehog is lenient?" Even with my blood his face was waxen and gaunt, his cheek bones standing out under his papery skin.

"Comparatively." He paused, gathering the effort to keep going. "They are avoiding methods that cause long term damage. It would only take a few days of extra blood and rest for me to be back at full strength."

I caught on to where he was going. There were only so many reasons to need a former Viking in good condition. "Sophie-Anne wants you to help defend her when Threadgill tries a takeover," I said as the thought dawned on me.

"Yes."

"And you'd be willing to do it?"

"Yes."

These vampires and their weird sense of loyalty. After weeks of torturing him, Sophie-Anne expected Eric to risk his life to keep her on the throne. Why? Because she could have been more awful to him. "That's crazy."

"It is rational. I would have done the same thing in her position."

I fingered my stump. The clean cut had already scabbed over and made its way to shiny scar tissue. I would be fine now if the skin was all that had been damaged, but the bone and muscle were already pushing to recreate my hand, one fiber and cell at a time. A dull throb had built at the blunt end of my arm that made my teeth ache.

Eric's logic might be rational, but that didn't mean it didn't still hurt.

I got him to drink some True Blood. It was a bit awkward, like feeding a hospital patient, since his hands were chained down and I was missing one of mine. I ended up supporting his head with my forearm while I tried to tip the bottle to his lips. Not all of the blood made it into his mouth, and Eric took the opportunity to ogle my braless chest while I swabbed him clean with my over-sized white shirt.

That made me feel a little better about him, as odd as it seemed. I supposed I only really had to worry about Eric if he didn't have energy or state of mind to find my boobs worth a good stare.

I asked about the guard schedule. I had been keeping tabs on the other voids in the building, but they had stayed occupied with the humans in the building for most of our visit. According to Eric, they generally came to him after sunset and right before dawn.

"I don't know if I'll be able to pop in again. The Queen's letting me go back to Shreveport tomorrow." I'd never tried to teleport that far, and I wasn't sure I even wanted to imagine the consequences of a pop like that going wrong. "I'll tell Pam you said hi."

He nodded, understanding. "This was more than I expected."

I picked up the silver ball from where I'd left it on the table along with the duct tape. Eric and the room needed to be left just like I had found them. I knew that, but I still didn't want to shove that hunk of silver back in his mouth.

His lips pressed into a thin line when he saw what I had, and then, he opened them.

As much as I understood that he couldn't opt out of this punishment anymore than a human could opt out of paying taxes or following the law, it was still unsettling to see him so ready to take up that burden again. Sophie-Anne had given him his Sheriff position, which in turn gave him the freedom and autonomy to build a business he loved and run his area how he saw fit. All that came with a price, though, and unless he took more power, he'd always be behold to the people who did.

Eric jerked when I put the ball back in and a quick burst of air rushed out through his nose. The tape went back over his mouth and I smoothed his dirty hair while his blue eyes watched.

It only took me a moment to gather up the True Blood bottles and chug another one myself. I moved to the center of the room, and gave a pathetic little wave.

"I'll see you in Shreveport." And I popped out.

* * *

**A/N: **Whoo! Long chapter. I have to say though that I think "Idaho" and "silver miner" is probably one of the better place/job combos if you want vampires to stay away from you. Or maybe you be the pointy stick maker for those pit traps you always see in movies.

Anyway, next up: Fangtasia! Pam! Weres! Witches! And possibly a pouty Chow! Let's get ready to rumble!


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